APRS has responded to a consultation by Ofgem on data centre connections to the grid. You can read our response below. March 2026

The proposals have three strands: Curate, Plan and Connect. Our comments are structured around these three strands.

Curate:

Ofgem is trying to reduce the number of connection applications through two mechanisms, which we are broadly supportive of.  

– Financial Mechanism.

We agree that applicants for a grid connection should submit a deposit and that it is non-refundable. We see, what we consider to be a number of applications for planning for data centres that are evidently speculative, and these should not be blocking connections .

– Readiness Requirements.

We believe that data centre operators should have planning permission before they are permitted to apply for a connection but this should only be one of the criteria they need to have: the others should be based on a public interest measure (incorporating value to the economy, in terms of jobs, prosperity and public good) and the other an environmental measure.

We also believe that NESO should advise local authorities on the grid capacity available and potential impacts of a connection on the wider grid at the time of application for planning or when the local development plan is being written so that these requirements are factored in when planning permission is considered.

Plan:

The government is leading on this work to create a strategic plan for data centres. This plan has to be in line with net zero goals (4.13), which we support.  

• In terms of planning for data centres, this must look at how much data centre capacity it is possible to accommodate in the near term within the UK’s carbon budgets. It also should look at how to prioritise data centres based on value to the economy, in terms of jobs, prosperity and public good, and use of other resources such as water. And that prioritisation should look at the opportunity costs of giving such large connections a data centre over other users of energy who would deliver more jobs, prosperity, public good. There are concerns that data centres trying to connect to the grid will crowd out renewable energy projects and projects that would provide more value to the economy, community or public good.
• The strategic importance for a data centre should be considered – ie whether it is delivering important functions for the economy, the community (in contrast with than training AI large language models for Big Tech).
• Ofgem’s principle objective (1.5), includes meeting the UK’s net zero targets. Ofgem estimate that there are 140 (50 GW) data centres in the current demand queue. We believe that any one of the hyperscale data centres in the grid queue could, due to their extremely high energy demand, and need for constant energy supply, put our climate targets at risk and this should be properly modelled before allowing any to enter the grid queue.
• We agree that  new demand should prioritise jobs and economic growth (2.11), and we do not believe that new hyperscale AI data centres do this.  Plus there are the opportunity costs when data centres take valuable grid connections that could be better utilised by anther user. We attach a copy of our report; Employment and Data Centres

Connect:

These appears to contains some proposals that could be considered close to the ‘bring your own energy’ model of the US. We are extremely concerned about this, and any suggestions that data centres might build their own grid.  We focus on the following points:

• We are concerned with proposals to allow new onsite generation – (point 5.47) This concerns us for a couple of reasons: Firstly in the US, ‘bring your own energy’ has increased since data centre energy demand has out-stripped the ability of the grid to supply them. This has hugely increased fossil fuel generation, as this is the quickest energy to come on stream that can produce power for a constant demand, as data centres have. We fear this will happen here as the demands for data centres start to cause instability on the grid and they are encouraged at points of instability to go to their backup generation. This would be catastrophic for our climate targets. We are concerned that there will not be adequate oversight over the construction of, what will effectively be, a parallel electricity generation and delivery system. What regulatory and safety and environmental oversight will there be of renewables, nuclear and fossil fuels delivered this way.
• Demand from this parallel system will work in competition for materials, expertise components, to our current generation and grid system, compromising our own grid build-out, increasing electricity costs and making our net zero goals harder to reach.
• Point, 5.49 states that licenses for self-build will have to consider net zero goals. What would this scrutiny comprise? How is this parallel process, that could reach as much energy use as the whole national grid if it is not constrained, to be managed?
• There is already community opposition to grid and some energy infrastructure, if this is being done for data centres in addition, it will cause more issues and make it harder to justify necessary grid upgrades and renewable infrastructure for net zero.

Reports issued

summary of the responses 

update on Ofgem work under the Connect pillar of demand connections reform