Electricity: Data Centres
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of AI-capable data centre growth on regional electricity network constraints.
Answered by Michael Shanks
Data centres in the right locations can utilise surplus or constrained renewable generation, reducing curtailment and making more efficient use of the electricity system.
This more efficient use of the energy system would reduce network balancing costs, due to easing network constraints.
The Department recently consulted on measures to help secure grid capacity for vital data centre growth in a way that balances energy security and manages the costs to the system. These include planned reforms to manage speculative data centre applications, to incentivise flexible operation in times of system stress and to align data centre connections to regional infrastructure targets.
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