Proposed UK data centres could pay £100M in deposits for power demands
17 hours ago
- Ofgem proposes refundable deposits for data centre developers to connect to the UK electricity grid, ranging from £237,500 to £712,500 per megawatt.
- Projects seeking 1 GW of power would face upfront costs of hundreds of millions, with deposits refunded if the project is completed.
- Electricity capacity requests have surged from 41 GW to 125 GW in the past year, exceeding the UK's 2025 peak demand of around 46 GW.
- The proposal aims to deter speculative projects from blocking grid capacity, with key milestones required to maintain connection queue positions.
- Data centres are controversial due to concerns over noise, electricity use, and water consumption for cooling, despite being essential for AI and digital services.