What are the biggest challenges you face in aligning data centre development with grid availability and energy infrastructure?

Helena Fagraeus Lundstrom,

CEO, T. Loop

Hossein Nouri,

Managing Director, Petro Power Construction

Luigi Pettinicchio,

CEO, Asper Investment Management

Time to power in attractive locations is a challenge for us as well as for the rest of the industry. Since we integrate our data centers with energy infrastructure, through district heating integration, we can however unlock grid connection opportunities that are unavailable for conventional data centers.

Grid access remains a key constraint; by co-locating data centres with district heating networks, we aim to reduce grid demand by 10–20% and improve the likelihood of grid approvals through more sustainable, system-friendly infrastructure.

The challenging part of any data-centre build isn’t design or financing — it’s timing. Getting the utility’s schedule to line up with the construction programme remains one of the major hurdles.Utilities plan on ten- to fifteen-year cycles; developers want to energise in three. That discrepancy may often force investors to commit capital before a confirmed connection, just to hold delivery windows. It’s capital at risk, but waiting usually costs more.The real choke point is local capacity.

A site can look perfect on paper, yet the nearest substation might already be at its thermal limit. One congested feeder can stop an entire project. Routing new transmission lines brings another layer of risk — new hearings, heritage reviews, community objections — each of which can stall energisation by months. On top of that, ESG standards have made power quality as important as quantity. Connections now have to be verifiably renewable, often tied to heat recovery or carbon tracking. Those requirements stretch both engineering and legal timelines. In the end, it’s rarely about whether the design works. It’s about synchronising two very different clocks: the utility’s and the developer’s.

Gyula Törzsök,

Director of Innovation & Strategic Programmes, Thames Estuary

James Lapushner,

CIO, Anacott Capital

Neal Kalita,

Senior Director, Global Energy Management

Stephen Bradley,

New Business Director, JSM Group Services Limited

The Thames Estuary highlights the UK-wide pattern: grid access, rather than land or fibre, has become the primary gating factor for large-scale DC investment. Bridging this gap requires earlier coordination between data-centre developers, National Grid ESO, DNOs (UKPN in The Thames Estuary), port authorities, and local councils to sequence substation build-outs, de-risk permitting in sensitive flood-plain zones, and integrate renewable and storage assets. Demand for alternatives like direct power cables to the energy sources are increasing and location with such options are in high demand.

Primary constraints are long lead times for grid connections, uncertain grid upgrade timelines, and competition with other large industrial consumers for capacity. Regulatory uncertainty over grid prioritisation and curtailment policies complicates financial modelling. We also see difficulty securing medium/long-term renewable offtake at scale in some markets and a mismatch between where capacity is most needed and where low-carbon power is concentrated.

Cashflow – capital deployed to build asset vs day 1 power and lease commencement creating lag that delays revenue generation longer than expected.

Currently the electricity networks are facing a huge demand for new large connections of DC’s, commercial and logistics developments ,as well as EV’s and renewable energy. NESO are heading up the Connections Reform process which has the objective to unlock the connections queue such that shovel ready developments can get connected quicker. We are currently in the Gate 2 stage of Connections Reform with the expectation that developers will receive revised offers from the network operators to enable them to start connecting developments in 2026 / 27.