The amount of electricity demanded by new datacenter projects in the UK will exceed the country’s current peak electricity consumption, according to an industry watchdog.
Ofgem said some 140 proposed datacentre schemes powered by the use of artificial intelligence could require up to 50 gigawatts of power – 5GW more than the country’s current peak demand.
This figure has appeared in a Ofgem Consulting On demand for new connections to the UK power grid. It pointed to a “growth in demand” for connection applications between November 2024 and June last year, with a significant number coming from datacentres. This exceeds even the most ambitious forecasts.
Meanwhile, new renewable energy projects are not being connected to the grid at the pace they are being built to help meet the government’s clean energy targets by the end of the decade.
Ofgem said the work required to connect the growing number of datacentres could mean delays to other projects that are “crucial to decarbonisation and economic growth”. Datacenters are the central nervous system of AI tools like chatbots and image generators, which play a key role in the training and operation of products like ChatGPT and Gemini.
The rapid increase in energy consumption could make it even more difficult for the UK to meet its target of creating a virtually carbon-free electricity system by 2030, which is already in doubt amid concerns over the country’s rising electricity costs.
The Guardian revealed last year that a massive datacentre proposed for Elsham in Lincolnshire could cause more greenhouse gas emissions than five international airports combined.
While some tech bosses and climate experts believe AI could help the fight against global warming by making power grids work more efficiently or accelerating the development of new zero-carbon technologies, there are widespread concerns that datacenters will increase demand for fossil fuels to meet their energy demands in the near term.
Ofgem also said that unviable applications for grid access could block progress on important datacentre bids, such as those related to the government’s AI development sectors. The zones, which offer a streamlined planning process and help with access to energy, were announced last year as part of a plan to increase the adoption of AI in the UK.
The regulator has proposed tougher financial tests for datacenter developers to join the queue to connect to the grid, to avoid creating a backlog of projects that do not have sufficient funding, thereby delaying viable projects that are further down the queue.
Ofgem said datacentres should be central to any changes to the application process for electricity connections, describing the issue as a “global challenge” and saying there was no mechanism for ministers to prioritize projects deemed strategically imported.
The regulator is considering charging datacenter providers for access to energy connections – through deposits or non-refundable fees – which could also deter “non-viable” projects that would otherwise stall the application process. Ofgem is also exploring whether datacentre developers should pay for and build their own grid access, which would “speed up connections and deliver better outcomes for consumers”.
