Data Centre Commitment Fee
Ofgem's proposed £237,500-£712,500 per MW deposit to hold a UK grid connection offer.
Ofgem's Data Centre Commitment Fee would make developers post £237,500 to £712,500 per megawatt to hold a grid connection offer, refunded once a site is energised. Ofgem opened consultation on 29 July 2026 and closed it on 16 September.
Last refreshed: 18 October 2026
How much would a 1 GW data centre pay to hold its grid slot?
Timeline for Data Centre Commitment Fee
Mentioned in: Malaysia bills data centres' unused grid
Data Centres: Boom and BacklashOfgem puts a price on the grid queue
Data Centres: Boom and BacklashBackground
The Data Centre Commitment Fee is a proposal from Ofgem, Britain's energy regulator. A developer accepting a grid connection offer would post a refundable deposit of £237,500 to £712,500 per megawatt. Ofgem would return it when the site is energised and keep it if the developer abandons the slot.
The fee answers a queue problem. By June 2025 applications for British demand connections totalled 125 GW, up from 41 GW seven months earlier; data centres held roughly 80 GW. Projects that never build still hold capacity that others could use.
Ofgem consulted from 29 July to 16 September 2026. No developer had paid the fee by then, so its effect on the queue has yet to be tested.
The deposit targets a swollen queue
Ofgem opened its consultation on 29 July 2026. By June 2025 Britain's demand queue had reached 125 GW, three times the 41 GW of November 2024, and data centres made up roughly 80 GW of it. The fee is meant to force speculative applicants out, because an abandoned project still blocks a slot another developer could use.
The consultation closed on 16 September, and as of October 2026 the fee remains a proposal. Malaysia moved further on 15 October: its trade minister told Parliament that data centres there now pay for all the grid capacity they book, so a site reserving 200 MW but using 100 MW pays for 200. That is a running monthly charge, where the British deposit is refundable on energisation.
Reference
What is Ofgem's Data Centre Commitment Fee?
Why did Ofgem propose the Data Centre Commitment Fee?
Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 18 October 2026. Editorial standards.