(Hong Kong, Shanghai, 5 August 2022) Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (HKEx:2318; SSE:601318) announced that its new Ping An Guanlan Data Center No. 3 has set a benchmark for energy-saving and emission-reduction technology in China’s financial data centers, marking another step toward Ping An’s goal to achieve operational carbon neutrality by 2030. It is the first financial data center in mainland China with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) lower than 1.25, which is expected to save about 10.5 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 6,406 tons per year[1].

Data centers are the operating carriers for enterprises’ digitalization and the foundation of business development. The PUE is an indicator of the energy efficiency of a data center. Currently in China, the PUE of financial data centers are generally between 1.6 and 2. The level of energy efficiency is better when it is closer to 1, which indicates that most energy from the data center is well consumed by servers, network equipment and storage devices. Ping An Guanlan Data Center No. 3 is the country’s first-ever financial data center with a PUE lower than 1.25, at 1.2479 PUE.

Construction of Ping An Guanlan Data Center No. 3 in Shenzhen began in July 2021. Catering to the Group’s needs in the next five years, the center is capable of serving more than 500 million users of Ping An by processing data from the Group’s subsidiaries covering the core financial services, including insurance, banking services, securities and more. The center covers 5,653 square meters of land with a total construction area of 33,288 square meters. It features numerous energy-saving technologies for electric supply, heating and ventilation and electrical automation, as well as innovation in site layout and effective construction management.

Ping An sees green and low-carbon development as important corporate responsibility and aims to achieve operational carbon neutrality by 2030. With reference to the best international carbon neutral strategies, the Group prioritizes internal emission reduction through energy-saving offices and data centers, followed by reducing external emission through purchasing external green power. After all emission reduction measures are implemented, Ping An will achieve carbon neutrality through multiple approaches, including buying carbon credits.

In 2021, Ping An focused on reducing the impact of its operations on the environment through energy-saving transformation, smart office features and digitalization to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Ping An’s total carbon emissions decreased by 19% year-on-year to about 429,000 tons. The electricity consumption of Ping An’s own workplaces and leased workplaces was down 2.65% year-on-year to 513,946,880 kWh. Ping An also applied green and environmental technologies to construct green buildings. As of December 31, 2021, more than 10 of Ping An’s green building projects, including the Ping An Financial Center in Shenzhen and the Ping An National Customer Service and Support Technology Center in Shanghai, have obtained green building certifications at home and abroad, including the US Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certification for Buildings Operations and Maintenance.

[1] Calculation based on General Rules for Calculation of the Comprehensive Energy Consumption (GB/T2589-2020)