the synchronisation of the grid in ukraine with the european western european grid partially happened also in our supply areas, so we were on the ground affected by it. the second effect is that we had to basically change all the processes that we had established because the absolute unprecedented volatility and also the huge price level meant that obviously also we were challenged. we had, you know, we had to provide billions of additional working capital to just continue to procure the energy which was rising by a factor of 10 to 20 on the electricity and gas side. here in the uk, e.0n increased prices back in april of last year by around 54% for customers on your standard variable tariff. i mean, what do you say, leo, to your customers during this cost of living crisis? we are trying to actually help
to power our digital world. now, you may not know this, but e.0n, it s one of europe s biggest energy companies, it s heavily involved in supplying green energy to the tech world and at the forefront of new innovations, it s capturing waste heat from sizzling servers to warm our homes. so, i caught up with the big boss. leonhard birenbaum, a real pleasure having you on my show, and thanks for your time. i know you like to go by leo, so that s what i ll use. and leo, on the show this week, we ve been looking at the mighty rise of data centres around the world as our lives arejust going more and more online. and, of course, these are very power hungry facilities and with growing populations, leo, and globalisation, it feels like this isn t a problem that s going to go away. how do we make this work? first, aaron, pleasure to be on your show. second, no, the mighty data and energy hunger is going to remain. so data centres globally consume something right now, we estimate between a0 and 8
population and the population growth and globalisation which is driving it, it s also new technology like chatgtp uses three times the energy consumption of a google search. now, how do we do it? what do we do about it? number one, we need to make all data centres always more energy efficient. and the data centre operators are doing that. and number two, we need to make sure that we use the waste energy out of such data centres for example, for heating in the neighbourhood. and this is what we as e.0n are doing on a large scale. for example, as we just inaugurated a data centre in stockholm where we are doing that and it serves one third of the total energy consumption, so this is the type of innovation we need for this challenge. so, you basically sell the excess energy, the excess heat. so, my question is this, leo can watching cat videos help heat a city? laughs.
to a certain extent, yes, but obviously, in the end, you know, it s still energy consumption because it reduces really the total energy demand. yes, it can help to heat a city but it still means you need to produce energy first somewhere. leo, the war on ukraine has resulted in an unprecedented increase in our energy prices something many of our viewers are really struggling with. just tell us what that s meant for e.0n and how did you adapt as a company to the massive supply and demand changes? yeah, first, it s horrific. what has it meant to us? first, we have been personally affected. e.0n is also supplying the border areas of slovakia, hungary, romania to ukraine and so, we had direct interactions there and also, the synchronisation of the grid in ukraine with the european western european grid partially happened also in our supply areas, so we were on the ground affected by it. the second effect is that we had to basically change
we send, you know, liquid water cooling straight onto the board and actually into the chipsets that sit within the it. and that means that we re not cooling by blowing air over racks of it but we re actually, you know, removing the heat through water that gets circulated around the, you know, the chips themselves. that has dramatic increasing energy efficiency by applying that technology. well, on that point, gary aitkenhead from equinix, a real pleasure having you on the show. good luck with everything and i ll check in with you soon. my pleasure. thanks very much. good talking with you. so, we ve been speaking about the environmental impact of our ever expanding online lives with the energy needed to power our digital world. now, you may not know this, but e.0n, it s one of europe s biggest energy companies, it s heavily involved in supplying green energy to the tech world and at the forefront of new innovations, it s capturing waste heat from sizzling servers to warm our homes. so,