Surging demand from data centres “is straining electricity grid”

The Netherlands’ electricity grid will struggle to cope from surging demand from data centres driven by advances in AI, network providers have warned.

The amount of power used by data centres alone is set to grow to 70% of the Netherlands’ total current energy use by 2050, from a current level of 30%.

Two of the largest network operators – GasUnie and TenneT – along with industry body Netbeheer Nederland have called for politicians to make hard choices now to prevent the system becoming increasingly overburdened over the next 25 years.

They pointed to recent mass power cuts in Spain and Portugal, which cost hundreds of millions of euros to restore, as an example of the potential risks associated with high energy use.

Maarten Otto, chair of Netbeheer Nederland and CEO of network distributor Alliander, said the accelerating demand for electricity was “something we’ve never seen before”.

Demand is also being driven by the energy transition, as industrial users are switching from fossil fuels such as oil and gas to renewable sources that use more electricity, such as wind turbines.

Manon van Beek, chairman of TenneT, said: “Demand from data centres, alongside all the other requirements for more capacity, cannot be accommodated as things stand now.”

But he added that data centres could be part of the solution if they were encouraged to spread their usage to prevent spikes in demand that threaten to overload the network.