07What does AI draw from the grid?
Who Gets Connected: the rules for data centres on the grid
Which European governments have set rules for data centres on the electricity grid, what does each one ask, and is it in force yet?
Of 9 rules for data centres on the grid, across 7 jurisdictions and last re-read at their sources on 5 October 2026, 5 are in force, 1 has passed and awaits a start date and 3 are drafts or resolutions.
Spain's draft is the only one that asks for renewable cover hour by hour; Germany and Ireland count renewable purchases over a year.
The other rules decide who connects first, where a large data centre may be built, or what it must report. Each row links to the official text.
Each row summarises an official document as last re-read on the date shown. The summaries are a guide and are not legal advice; the linked text is the authority.
One mark per rule. A cell with two marks holds a law and a draft that would change it. Choose a column to list its rules in the table below.
| Where | What it asks | Threshold | Status | Source |
|---|
MVA (megavolt-amperes) is the unit a grid operator sizes a connection in; for a data centre it is close to megawatts. Rules set by a city or a grid operator are left out.
What the rules are
Each rule in the table does one of four things.
- Who connects first
- Denmark sorts requests for a grid connection into priority groups. Ireland's energy regulator sets conditions a large data centre must meet before it is connected; data centres there already take the largest share of electricity of any country that meters them (Where the Load Sits).
- Where a site may be built
- The Netherlands allows the largest sites only at two named places. Scotland's ministers are told about every large planning application, and its Parliament has asked for decisions to wait for national guidance.
- What a site must achieve or buy
- Germany limits the power a site may spend beyond its servers, on cooling and conversion, and asks it to buy renewable electricity to match its use. Spain's draft asks for that renewable power in the same hour it is used.
- What a site must report
- The EU asks every large site to publish its energy use, efficiency and renewable share each year.
Renewable electricity can be counted in two ways. Over a year, a site may set a solar farm's summer surplus against the nights and winters it runs on the grid; Germany and Ireland count this way. Hour by hour, the renewable power has to be generated in the same hour it is used, which a site that runs day and night can meet only with wind, sun and storage together. Where the Electricity Comes From compares the accounting behind a company's renewable claim.
A dashed label marks a draft, which can still change, or a parliamentary resolution, which binds no one. A solid label marks a rule that has passed; where no start date is published, the row says so. Every row is re-read at its official source on the first of each month. Figures from industry trackers, such as counts of blocked projects, stay out: no public document backs them.
How these numbers are made: Data-centre rules tracker.
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