By Alban Kacher
(Reuters) -Belgium’s grid operator could set an electricity allocation limit at data centers to prevent other industrial users from being excluded, it said, following a surge in demand for energy-intensive facilities that power AI.
Under operator Elia’s proposed reforms, data centers would be placed in a separate category that would allow network capacity to be allocated specifically for them within a set limit, the company told Reuters.
That would ensure that other sectors are not blocked from connecting to the network, the operator said, adding that flexible connections would remain possible where access may be limited during network congestion.
As big tech companies waste billions of dollars on artificial intelligence technologies and the data centers that run them, countries around the world are struggling to meet the sudden demand for energy needed to run buildings, which is expected to drive energy consumption to record levels in the next two years.
In Belgium, data center requests have increased nine-fold since 2022, and the reserved capacity for 2034 is already more than double the 8 terawatt-hours envisaged in national grid development plans, Elia said.
“These volumes were not foreseen during the development of the various development scenarios of Belgium’s electricity grid,” he said, emphasizing the need to stop speculative developments that are unlikely to materialize from blocking grid capacity.
The evolution of data center consumption will be addressed in the next federal network development plan 2028-2038, the country’s energy minister Mathieu Bihet told parliament earlier this week.
“I will pay special attention to this during the approval of the plan,” he said Tuesday.
US tech giant Google plans to invest €5 billion ($5.8 billion) in Belgium, with the aim of expanding its data center campuses to support its artificial intelligence strategy.
(Reporting by Alban Kacher; Editing by Muvija M)