On 28 October, alongside the Budget, the UK government published the Data Centre Covenant, a set of tests that strategic data centres must meet to receive government support. The tests cover a fair share of energy costs, a local community investment plan, environmental standards such as a PUE of 1.3 or better, jobs and apprenticeships, and stronger security. In return, the government will reserve and reallocate grid capacity, speed up connections before 2030 and, for exceptionally strategic projects, allow temporary on-site power generation. The government estimates the country needs 6 GW of AI data centre capacity by 2030.

What it means: Access to the electricity grid has become the biggest obstacle for new data centres across Europe, with waits that run to years. The British approach is a trade: the state moves projects it considers strategic to the front of the queue, but demands specific benefits for local communities, the environment and security. The test of secure access to compute for the NHS and other critical services shows that technological sovereignty is now treated as a national security matter. The definition of strategic and the detailed criteria have not yet been published, so practical application remains to be seen. For Greece, which attracts data centre investment mainly in Attica and northern Greece, the British model is a useful reference point. The country faces similar questions about available grid capacity, water use and benefits for local communities. The requirement to publish annual energy and water use data matches the EU Energy Efficiency Directive, which already obliges large data centres to report.

Read the original on GOV.UK

Related service: myDATA integrations

Related stories