Ofgem concerned about deluge of new data centres
There is a “real worry” there will be another flood of data centre projects in Britain when the first application window opens under the new connections process next year.
Jack Presley Abbott, deputy director for strategic planning and connections at UK energy regulator Ofgem, said Ofgem must now urgently find a way to “stem the flow”.
Presley Abbott made the comments at Utility Week Forum in London where he was pressed on the delay to the initial re-ordering of the connections queue and whether this process could have been smoother.
In reforming connection, Presley Abbott said Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator (NESO) have had to strike a careful balance in terms of speed: “We pushed and worked hard at developing reforms at real pace last year because it was really clear that we needed to reform the entire connections queue – not just piecemeal or forward-looking.
“We’ve taken a bit more time to make it right and it’s added, in the grand scheme of things, about three months.”
Between November last year and June 2025, NESO received 80GW of applications from demand projects looking to connect to the transmission network, most of them from data centres.
NESO is no longer accepting applications while it undertakes the initial queue re-ordering exercise. Under the enduring arrangements, developers will only be able to submit them during regular windows.
Presley Abbott said he has a “real worry” that once the first window opens next year, “we are going to see another 80GW of data centres connecting in that month alone”.
He said the regulator now has a short period of time in which to work out how to filter out speculative projects to “stem that flow and make sure the ones that are applying are the real data centres”.
“If you know what demand you want prioritise, how do we get a mechanism to prioritise that demand?” he asked. “Are they in the queue already, and if so, how do you bring those forward? If they’re not in the queue, how do we make it so we can reserve the capacity to expedite those?”
Jack Presley Abbott, deputy director for strategic planning and connections at UK energy regulator Ofgem, said Ofgem must now urgently find a way to “stem the flow”.
Presley Abbott made the comments at Utility Week Forum in London where he was pressed on the delay to the initial re-ordering of the connections queue and whether this process could have been smoother.
In reforming connection, Presley Abbott said Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator (NESO) have had to strike a careful balance in terms of speed: “We pushed and worked hard at developing reforms at real pace last year because it was really clear that we needed to reform the entire connections queue – not just piecemeal or forward-looking.
“We’ve taken a bit more time to make it right and it’s added, in the grand scheme of things, about three months.”
Between November last year and June 2025, NESO received 80GW of applications from demand projects looking to connect to the transmission network, most of them from data centres.
NESO is no longer accepting applications while it undertakes the initial queue re-ordering exercise. Under the enduring arrangements, developers will only be able to submit them during regular windows.
Presley Abbott said he has a “real worry” that once the first window opens next year, “we are going to see another 80GW of data centres connecting in that month alone”.
He said the regulator now has a short period of time in which to work out how to filter out speculative projects to “stem that flow and make sure the ones that are applying are the real data centres”.
“If you know what demand you want prioritise, how do we get a mechanism to prioritise that demand?” he asked. “Are they in the queue already, and if so, how do you bring those forward? If they’re not in the queue, how do we make it so we can reserve the capacity to expedite those?”
