Grids for data centres: ambitious grid planning can win Europe’s AI race | Ember

The EU has made AI plans foundational to its drive to boost Europe’s competitiveness on global markets. To support this, in 2025 the EU launched InvestAI, which seeks to mobilise €200 billion for AI investments, and its AI Continent Action Plan, which sets the goal of at least tripling data centre capacity in the next five to seven years.

Data centres are key to unlock AI investments. However, grid constraints have become a significant barrier to deployment in traditional data centre hubs known in Europe as the FLAP-D markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin).

Data centres already have a huge local impact on power grids, and their presence is growing. In 2023, data centres consumed between 33% and 42% of electricity demand in Amsterdam, London and Frankfurt, and nearly 80% in Dublin. In these major markets, decreasing grid availability and increasing congestion is causing grid connection queues to build up. 

With time to market being critical for industry players, better grid availability is becoming a defining factor for where developers bring investment. With data centres poised for rapid growth, countries that proactively plan grids for this will be best positioned to capture the economic and strategic benefits of AI.