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What is PUE, and why is it higher in the Gulf?

By Jay, Founder of G2MAX · Updated 2026-10-30

Short answer: PUE (power usage effectiveness) is total facility power divided by the power used by IT equipment. 1.0 would mean every watt goes to IT. The 2025 global average was 1.54; the Middle East and Africa average was 1.68 (Uptime Institute). A new Gulf site has a better chance of beating the regional average if heat rejection is decided early.

The definition, without the jargon

The Green Grid introduced PUE in 2007 (Uptime 2025). It's simple, which is why everyone uses it. It also leaves things out: water use, and how efficient the IT itself is. So a low PUE on its own doesn't mean a site is efficient (Uptime 2025).

Why the regional number is higher

• Heat. Higher outdoor temperatures cut the hours you can use economisers and raise chiller load.
• Survey mix. The regional figure is an average of whoever answered (79 respondents), not a measurement of every site.
• Partial load. At low utilisation, fixed losses in UPS, transformers, fans and pumps make up a bigger share of the total, so PUE rises.

What actually moves it on a hot site

1. Once your power is confirmed, choose heat rejection before anything else. Uptime notes that new builds can do better because efficient heat rejection can be designed in from the start (Uptime 2025).
2. Size to the load you will really have in years one to three, and phase the rest. Oversized plant running at low load pushes PUE up, because fixed losses get spread over less IT.
3. Set IT inlet temperature from the equipment's allowed range, not from habit. ASHRAE's 2021 recommended range for air-cooled classes A1–A4 is 18–27°C, as summarised by the US Department of Energy (DOE best practices guide).
4. Meter IT load and facility load separately from commissioning, so PUE can be tracked month by month.

A note on targets

Be careful with any PUE promise made before someone has looked at the site, the power supply and the climate data. A credible answer is a range based on those inputs. Our free 24-hour concept pack gives a first view; the free 5-day proposal narrows it.