The AI Race Is Pressuring Utilities to Squeeze More From Europe’s Power Grids
European countries are racing to bring new data centers online as AI labs across the globe continue to demand more compute. The primary limiting factor is energy—and specifically, the ability to move it. Though Europe is on track to generate enough energy, utilities experts say, grid operators broadly lack the infrastructure needed to transport it to where it needs to go. That’s throttling grid capacity and, by extension, the number of new power-hungry data centers that can connect without risking blackouts. National Grid, which operates the transmission network in England and Wales, says that proposed data centers representing more than 30 gigawatts (GW) of power demand are awaiting connection to its grid, equal to two thirds the peak demand of Great Britain. Even accounting for the likelihood that some of those data centers will never be built, there is currently not enough room to accommodate them. The wait for permission to plug in is causing some data center projects to collapse, undermining European ambitions to capture a share of the hundreds of billions of dollars …
