50 GW of datacenter demand queues up for UK grid access
- Reference: 1772197994
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/02/27/datacenter_uk_grid_demand/
- Source link:
Ofgem, the energy regulator for England, Scotland, and Wales, recently published a call for input on [1]Demand Connections Reform [PDF], inviting views from interested parties on how to improve the demand connections process.
The problem faced is that the demand queue is large and growing, and is said to contain a significant number of projects that are "likely non-viable." At the same time, viable projects are being held up because of the length of time needed for network or generation building.
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The document claims these issues are exacerbated because there are no mechanisms to prioritize strategically important demand projects.
[3]
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For "strategically important projects," read "datacenters." The UK government unveiled its [5]AI Opportunities Action Plan last year, aimed at driving economic recovery, and this includes the establishment of "AI Growth Zones" with streamlined planning processes to encourage the rapid building of more datacenters.
Ofgem says that since November 2024, total contracted offers in the demand queue rose sharply from 41 GW to 125 GW by June 2025. It contrasts this with the peak electricity use in Britain on February 11 this year, which stood at 45 GW.
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A call for input from the National Energy System Operator (NESO), which manages and plans the country's electricity and gas systems, found that a significant portion of those projects in the demand queue are datacenters. It identified about 140 facilities, the majority of which are likely to receive a Gate 2 offer, which is a "ready-to-connect" agreement, and these add up to a total of 50 GW of demand for electricity.
These are not likely to all be connected at the same time, of course, as many are in the early stages of construction or still being planned.
But it isn't just that these server farms are being held up. There is also the question of extra grid and generating capacity. Ofgem says that demand-side projects are only required to meet "readiness" criteria under the Connections Reform Package (TMO4+) introduced last year, unlike generation, storage, and interconnection projects that must be "ready" and "needed" under the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan.
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Ofgem states that it, the government and NESO are together taking a phased approach to reforming demand connections. This starts with immediate measures to strengthen financial commitments and weed out non-viable datacenters in the demand queue and prioritize strategic projects.
A second phase will see further measures to implement a strategic plan for data facilities, alongside additional measures to strengthen project commitments and address non-viable demand projects, Ofgem says.
We must confess to being puzzled, since we recall Ofgem announcing new rules some time ago aimed at speeding up electricity grid connections for viable projects and pushing stalled or speculative developers out of the queue. We asked the regulator if it could clarify the situation, and will update if we get an answer.
Omdia principal analyst for Colocation and DC Building Alan Howard told us that the power interconnection queue issue is a big problem, not just in the UK, but also in the US and other global markets.
"The strategy for many datacenter operators is to secure multiple land parcel rights, request a grid load connection for each (often requiring a costly load study), and see what gets approved so they can build. The capital investment to take all these projects seriously is clearly untenable and a huge financial risk for the energy sector if the demand doesn't fully materialize," he said.
[8]AMD puts $250M into Nutanix to get it building an AI stack for its GPUs
[9]Nvidia hasn't made a cent in China lately – and might not need to given $120B profit
[10]It's only Tuesday and AI chip startups have already soaked up $1.1B in funding
[11]AMD copy-pastes 6 GW chips-for-stock deal in new Meta agreement
This was highlighted in a [12]report from Uptime Institute last year, which found that developers try to reserve power for projects that may never be built, while datacenter operators apply for more than they need to accommodate future growth and planning uncertainty.
"The Ofgem Demand Connections Reform initiative is a great idea whereby an evidence-based system would be created to weed out or deprioritize the inevitable non-viable datacenter projects," Howard said.
"Using evidence such as a Final Investment Decision (FID) to show financing commitment or the ability to secure project planning permission from regulators would prioritize projects that are in the best interest of communities and the energy ecosystem at large."
The government also instituted an "AI Energy Council" when it launched the AI Opportunities Action Plan, in order to address the growing energy demands from all those AI facilities. This comprises Ofgem and NESO, along with energy companies and some of the big datacenter operators – Google, AWS, Microsoft and Equinix.
We asked what the AI Energy Council is doing to ensure there will be enough energy to meet all this anticipated demand from new datacenters.
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) told us: "Datacenters will only be connected where the grid can support them. The AI Energy Council is exploring opportunities to attract investment in new clean power sources for the industry, as we work with Ofgem and network companies to free up grid capacity."
"Our AI Growth Zones are driving their development in areas with new clean power generation such as North Wales, the home of our first small modular reactors," the spokesperson added.
The small modular reactor (SMR) was [13]announced last year , and will be sited at Wylfa on Anglesey, an island off northwest Wales, but it won't generate power until the mid-2030s.
Earlier this month, the government unveiled an Advanced Nuclear Framework initiative to attract private investment into next-generation nuclear technology to power factories and datacenters.
We understand there are currently five AI Growth Zones across England, Scotland, and Wales, including one recently announced in North Lanarkshire and one at the Culham Science Centre (UKAEA) in Oxfordshire. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2026-02/2026-02-12-Demand-Connections-Call-for-Input.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aaHNs8f-Pt9WePe5SnZ-lAAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aaHNs8f-Pt9WePe5SnZ-lAAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aaHNs8f-Pt9WePe5SnZ-lAAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/13/uk_government_ai_plans/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aaHNs8f-Pt9WePe5SnZ-lAAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aaHNs8f-Pt9WePe5SnZ-lAAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/26/nutanix_q2_2026/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/26/nvidia_q4_2026/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/25/ai_chips_vc_funding_1point1billion/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/24/amd_copypastes_openai_6gw_chipsforstock/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/08/uptime_institute_datacenter_grid/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/13/anglesey_smr/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"You want it? You pay for it. Full costs of the necessary power generation plants, including generation, transport, construction, integration, a suitable, authorised location, and decommissioning."
"Oh, and by the way, we're going to be putting massive clauses in your use of our fast-track programme that mean you have to dial down your usage over time, and you must prove and demonstrate continued investment in becoming self-sufficient power-wise throughout the entire term of your connection."
"Oh, and you get absolutely no rate discount and have to pay what everyone else pays per KWh"
Problem solved.
Couple of pages of A4.
Sign here.
Sadly .....
you mean UK taxpayer pays for it, install, power and everything, and it turns in to a car crash of us all. or am i being sinical.
Re: Sadly .....
Getting money upfront for building out the generation and grid reconfigurations may be the easy bit - as long as you cash the cheques upfront too before the banks break.
The harder bit is how to deliver. Already a significant part of generation is imported by cable. from France, Benelux & Norway. They will have their own AI demands to satisfy so that could disappear too. Building nuclear would take decades, building offshore wind needs a very different grid plus backup. Solar too needs backup. The grid is also having to cope with the switch from ICE to EV in transport. Yep, the only answer is appears to be gas. It's quick and will people think about the costs in bills and climate change when chatting with their friendly bot?
I really can't see a way out of this chaos for us or the rest of the developed world. Time to get into (Ant)artic real estate >:-(
Re: Sadly .....
Yes, and equipment and the engineers required to install it is at a premium – you thought CPUs and memory were getting expensive.
Re: Sadly .....
You are not being cynical.
Leave it to the market, the Tory mantra, really means the tax payer socialises the costs and a few chosen ones get the profits.
How about you try this Wagyu beef first and then wash it down with this fine wine.
lol
"developers try to reserve power for projects that may never be built"
As Lee D said.
At the very least lodge a bond to cover 5-10 years of their estimated power consumption so if they end up ditching the project the power companies (or more likely the taxpayer aren't on the hook for it), a bit like landfill or mining restoration bonds to allow reverting sites to nature which avoids the companies pinky promise to do but then going mysteriously bankrupt at the last minute.
No doubt the developers can insure or hedge themselves for it.
Link to Planning Permission?
Make it so that any project that doesn't yet have PP (or maybe just at least applied for PP) is automatically disqualified from being added to the connection queue.
Then add another huge chunk for all vehicles being electric
The datacenter demand is the easiest to deal with - just deny planning permission for all datacenters that need more than 10MW. Datacenters do not add a significent number of jobs once the construction phase is over so there is very little reason for the UK want them.
Dealing with the "Green" demand that all internal combustion vehicles are removed from the roads is going to require far more added electricity generation and distribution infrastructure.
Well over 20GW of additional generation would be needed to provide the energy for the vehicles. (If the load was absolutely uniform throughout the year then 12GW would just suffice. However as the demand varies over the course of every day (home charging can only take place when the vehicle is at home) the demand will be very non-uniform.)
Add to that the requirement for most urban roads in the UK needing to be dug up to install higher capacity electric cables along with replacing most urban distribution transformers with higher capacity ones to actually feed the power to homes to allow them to charge the vehicles. (For those people who say that fast chargers (eg at supermarkets) should be used, they cost far more (50-90 p/kWh) than domestic electricity (under 25p/kWh)).
Icon for the "Green" all electric vehicle idea ==============>
Re: Then add another huge chunk for all vehicles being electric
Electrification of road vehicles is the least of our concerns, compared to the plans to replace all gas heating by heat pumps. In terms of resource input, it will appear that road fuels dwarf space heating demand, but that's largely down to the poor efficiency of ICE vehicles. The particular problem with electrifying heating is that demand is hugely seasonal, so an annual doubling implies a winter peak multiplier that's 4-8x.
According to NESO Future Energy Scenarios, domestic electricity demand will double by 2050. If they plan to add in the same again of AI DCs in a shorter timescale...well, it's all bollocks.
excess or common sense.
So these idiots want to use the same amount of power as the peak winter usage for the entire country on a regular basis.
"Np" seems the most sensible answer. Or in more detail "come back when you dont need the same amount of power as a medium size city just to run plus half the water in the local reservoir to avoid bursting into flames"
If enough countries did that then the AI megacorps would be screaming at the likes of Nvidia to do their job properly and if that didnt work they might actually sit down and write the code for their little toys more efficently.
Re: excess or common sense.
So these idiots want to use the same amount of power as the peak winter usage for the entire country on a regular basis.
It should be mandated that these data centres should be located such that the excess heat can be put into heating for homes in winter rather than useless boiling of water and creating clouds.
Re: excess or common sense.
Seasonality of heating demand means that either the DC provides baseload heat, and the majority of annual heat demand is then met from some other peaking heat source, or network is sized to meet most of the seasonal space heating peak, but is then hugely underused for most of the year (and the DC would need to bleed off excess heat in the normal way).
Space heating demand is a very difficult load to meet efficiently. For illustrative purposes, an average domestic property would consume around 250 kWh of gas for water and space heating in a summer month, and in the peak winter month (that could be any or all of Nov-Feb) would use over 2000 kWh.
Frack
baby, frack.
Re: Frack
How does that help? This isn't about the availability of energy, which can be bought (relatively) cheaply as LNG, but a problem that the UK has no excess of power generation, a grid that isn't built with much spare capacity, and building new power lines or generation (or anything) in the UK has been made as slow, costly and difficult as possible by successive governments.
Perhaps sense can prevail
Behind the scenes, discussions are underway among Labour MPs concerning who should be Mr Starmer's replacement.
If somebody sensible assumes the mantle, UK government 'AI' mania will be halted.
Re: Perhaps sense can prevail - Not likely
The UK has had ONE useful politician in the last 100 years. Winston Churchill was a useful figurehead in WW2.
As for the rest - if someone did the Guy Fawkes job properly, the main public regret would be for the Big Ben clock.
Icon for my opinion of politicians ============>
Re: Perhaps sense can prevail - Not likely
the main public regret would be for the Big Ben clock
Probably, but I'd just like to register the view that the HoP are the most appalling ugly, ostentatious mock gothic monstrosity, and I'd happily see it gone with all it's regular hangers-on inside.
50GW?
50GW? That's almost an armful !