CX Tech
Developer behind a 1,000 MW data-centre application near Chapelcross.
CX Tech lodged plans at the end of September 2026 for eight 120 MW data centres near Chapelcross, backed by a 1,000 MW grid request that City AM called a record, just as Holyrood put data-centre consent decisions on hold.
Last refreshed: 18 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Timeline for CX Tech
Lodged a 1,000 MW application for a campus near Chapelcross
Data Centres: Boom and Backlash: GB Grid opens self-build to data centresBackground
CX Tech Limited, led by chief executive Graeme Anderson, is the developer behind a proposed data-centre campus near the former Chapelcross nuclear power station in Dumfries and Galloway. Its application to Dumfries and Galloway Council covers eight buildings of 120 MW each, about 1,000 MW in all.
The tech news site Digit put the investment at £16.5 billion and called the filing an early planning framework, with design and commercial detail still to come. CX Tech proposes closed-loop, non-evaporative air cooling and expects around 450 permanent jobs once the campus runs.
Campaigners have organised against the plan. Action to Protect Rural Scotland says the campus would draw the equivalent of a third of Scotland's electricity in a year, and local campaigners say the buildings would stand on agricultural fields rather than on the decommissioned nuclear site. Holding a grid place may also get dearer: Ofgem has floated charging data centres between £237,500 and £712,500 for each megawatt when they accept a grid offer.
The record request meets a consent pause
CX Tech's 1,000 MW connection request surfaced in The Week the UK Government announced GB Grid, on 29 September 2026, and City AM ranked it the largest single application in Britain's demand queue. Measured against a national peak of about 45 GW, the company is asking for more than 2% of the country's maximum demand. It points to a 132 kV grid supply point beside the site and about 1 GW of consented or planned renewable generation within 5 km.
A connection does not deliver consent. In September MSPs backed, by 80 votes to 26, a halt on data-centre planning and consenting decisions pending national guidance. Scottish Ministers have agreed to decide no hyperscale applications until that guidance exists, which leaves CX Tech's campus waiting on Holyrood rather than the grid.
What is CX Tech planning at Chapelcross?
How much would the Chapelcross data centre cost?
Why do campaigners oppose the Chapelcross data centre?
Who runs CX Tech?
Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 18 October 2026. Editorial standards.