Ofgem wants developers to post up to £712,500 per megawatt to hold a grid connection slot, refundable only on energisation. Amazon's 10-Q discloses $137.2bn of data-centre leases it has signed but not opened. Six US grid operators told federal regulators that none of them can serve its data-centre queue under current rules, and PJM has asked to buy 6,831 MW back at up to $555 a megawatt-day.
Six jurisdictions independently priced grid access this fortnight, and the first hyperscalers are already paying in relocation rather than cash.
Ofgem opened a consultation on 29 July proposing a Data Centre Commitment Fee of up to £712,500 per megawatt, payable the moment a developer accepts a connection offer and forfeited if the site is abandoned.
Ofgem opened a consultation on 29 July proposing developers pay £237,500 to £712,500 per megawatt to hold a grid connection offer, refunded once the site is energised. Demand applications rose from 41 GW to 125 GW between November 2024 and June 2025, roughly 80 GW of it data centres.
The deposit is meant to force out speculative applicants, since an abandoned project still blocks a slot others could use. The consultation closes 16 September.
PJM wants a one-time reliability auction capped at $555 per MW-day to close a 6,831 MW gap for 2028/29, a cap set well above the $325 ceiling on its base auction.
PJM Interconnection (PJM) filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on 31 July for a one-time backstop capacity auction. It runs 30 September to 21 October, with a price cap of $555 per megawatt-day against the $325 base auction cap.
It is meant to close a 6,831 MW shortfall against PJM's 2028/29 delivery-year reliability requirement. Utility Dive separately estimated the backstop could cost up to $20bn through 2027, a figure from its own reporting, not PJM's filing.
All six US regional transmission organisations filed the generation-adequacy reports FERC ordered, and not one claims it can serve its data-centre queue under existing market rules.
The six US regional grid operators filed generation-adequacy reports on 20 July, ordered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. None claims it can serve its data-centre queue under current rules.
New England's grid operator goes furthest, proposing to exclude new large loads from its capacity market entirely, forcing them to bring their own generation or accept curtailment. One operator has already flagged a shortfall as large as 4.7 GW by 2028.
Amazon's 10-Q for the June quarter discloses $137.2bn of leases not yet commenced, a number more than 60 per cent larger than the capex guidance figure the market actually tracks.
Amazon's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June disclosed $650bn of total contractual commitments. That includes $137.2bn of data-centre leases signed but not yet opened, plus $130.1bn of unconditional purchase obligations, mostly long-term energy contracts.
The lease figure alone is more than 60% larger than Amazon's entire 2026 cash capex guidance of roughly $220bn. That gap shows far more capacity is already locked in than headline spending numbers suggest.
Amy Hood put Microsoft's calendar-2026 capex near $175bn after extending the assumed life of data-centre buildings to 25 years, a figure widely conflated with separate fiscal-2027 guidance.
Microsoft changed how it accounts for data-centre buildings. It extended their assumed useful life from 15 to 25 years and shifted new capacity from finance leases to operating leases. Chief financial officer Amy Hood said the change puts Microsoft's calendar-2026 capex at roughly $175bn, not the separately quoted $255bn-$260bn figure.
That larger figure actually covers Microsoft's fiscal 2027 year to June 2027. Excluding it, the big four's combined calendar-2026 capex holds near $732bn, barely above the $725bn reported in May.
Ireland's utility regulator closed its consultation on EirGrid's MPID 345 on 29 July, a modification that would make data centres ride through voltage dips rather than trip to backup generators.
Ireland's Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) closed its consultation on EirGrid's grid code modification 345 on 29 July. The rule sets fault-ride-through, RoCoF and active-power-recovery obligations for data centres connected to the transmission grid.
It also creates a 24-month group derogation route for sites that cannot comply immediately. CRU says it will rule urgently, since some existing and incoming data centres cannot meet the new technical rules straight away.
DC Byte puts Dublin at 15 per cent of data-centre capacity across five western European hubs against London's 39 per cent, with Microsoft reported to be looking to the Nordics instead.
Market-intelligence firm DC Byte reported Dublin now holds 15% of data-centre capacity among five major western European hubs, against London's 39%. Microsoft is reported to be looking to the Nordics instead.
Irish data centres consumed 24% of the country's electricity in 2025, up from 5% in 2015. Hyperscalers still need Dublin for existing cloud regions, DC Byte says, but are no longer planning future growth around the city as they once did.
Switch Datacenters, the municipality of Uithoorn, a growers' collective and grid operator Liander signed a heat-network deal that lets a 60 MVA site proceed under a provincial ban that still stands.
Data-centre developer Switch Datacenters, the municipality of Uithoorn, a growers' collective and grid operator Liander signed a heat-network agreement. It enables a 60-megavolt-ampere data-centre site otherwise barred by the province's NH2020 building rule.
That rule blocks data centres above 2,000 square metres or 5 megavolt-amperes in the area. The exemption is justified because waste heat from the planned facility will supply nearby greenhouses, cutting their gas use.
ZDATA told Reuters its 300 MW plant at Iskandar Puteri runs solely on treated wastewater, the first named-operator answer since Johor froze approvals for water-intensive projects.
MalaysiaData-centre operator ZDATA (a Malaysian firm) told Reuters its 300 MW facility at Iskandar Puteri, Johor, runs solely on treated wastewater. It is finalising a renewable-supply deal with state utility Tenaga Nasional.
It is the first named-operator response since Johor halted approvals for water-intensive data-centre projects. Neighbouring Selangor is taking a different approach, applying a 30% local-content requirement instead of Johor's water-based test.
HCLTech, Sarvam AI and the government of Odisha signed a Rs 14,257 crore agreement on 24 July to build a Sovereign AI Park at Bhubaneswar, targeting operations from 2028.
IndiaHCLTech signed an agreement with Sarvam AI and the Odisha state government to build a Sovereign AI Park data centre in Bhubaneswar. The project is worth Rs 14,257 crore, about $1.5bn, and targets operations from 2028, with Odisha state financial assistance included.
Odisha becomes the newest Indian state entering the sovereign AI infrastructure race, alongside Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
Lakeland's city commission voted 4-3 on Monday 3 August for a one-year moratorium on new electrical users with projected peak demand of 50 MW or more.
Lakeland, Florida's city commission voted 4-3 on 3 August to pass a one-year moratorium on new large electrical users, including data centres. The threshold is a projected peak demand of 50 MW or more.
Three commissioners voted against the wording as too broad. It follows weeks of public hearings driven by opposition to a proposed facility known as Project Swan.
ERCOT closed Batch Zero interconnection submissions on 24 July, with classification results on the Texas data-centre queue due by 7 August.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) closed submissions for its Batch Zero interconnection process on 24 July. That was the deadline for transmission and distribution providers to submit completed large-load details.
Classification results for the Texas data-centre queue are due by 7 August. ERCOT has not yet published a total for how much of its queue Batch Zero actually confirmed as real demand.
Rising on cost, easing on outright prohibition. No jurisdiction in this fortnight's events imposed a new ban; Uithoorn and Johor found routes through existing ones. The mechanism to watch is PJM's Interim Resource Adequacy Service filing expected around 7 August, which would extend curtailment to loads connecting after 1 June 2027 and back it with a registry, the point at which curtailment stops being an emergency tool (as it was in the DOE's three 202(c) orders this year) and becomes a standing term of connection.
