Europe's data centers are booming. Who gets first dibs on electricity?

# Who gets first dibs on Europe’s electricity? Source: [https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/the-plug-fight-who-gets-to-plug-into-europes-energy-supply-first](https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/the-plug-fight-who-gets-to-plug-into-europes-energy-supply-first) DUBLIN — Along a series of gray, unassuming roads in a business park in west Dublin is one of the largest concentrations of data centers in Europe\. Operated by United States\-based tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon and Google, the dozens of data centers at the[Grange Castle Business Park](https://grangecastle.ie/)in Clondalkin are ground\-zero in a fast\-developing fight spreading across the European Union\. As data centers suck up more energy, who gets to plug into the electricity grid first? In[2020](https://www.eirgrid.ie/sites/default/files/publications/Transmission-Development-Plan-2020-2029.pdf), Ireland’s electricity grid operator approved a[€100 million](https://sinnfein.ie/news/report-shows-households-on-the-hook-for-data-centre-energy-grid-costs-boylan/)substation near the complex to support housing expansion, according to government documents\. Nearly all of the substation’s capacity went to data centers instead\. A big mistake, said Judith Seleke, a resident in the area who has spent two years looking for an apartment to rent in Dublin\. “It would be hugely helpful,” she added, if the government prioritized housing and other critical infrastructure\. Across the European Union, member states are facing similar challenges, as more and more data centers attempt to plug into Europe’s over\-subscribed electrical grid, leading to queues in some countries around a decade long\. Now, national governments across the bloc are moving to rank housing, batteries and renewable energy connections above data centers in the grid queue, amid growing public pushback\. Denmark introduced one of the EU’s most ambitious grid[prioritization frameworks](https://dig.watch/updates/denmark-electricity-grid-rules-data-centres)in October, with other member states expected to follow\. The EU is also trying to weigh\-in, by suggesting to member states that they shift away from a first\-come, first\-served model to one that prioritizes shovel\-ready projects and those with a critical societal impact\. Energy ministers will discuss the issue as part of the network charges act on[Thursday](https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/tte/2026/10/29/)\. “Ireland is the canary in the coal mine,” said MEP Lynn Boylan \(The Left, IE\), whose Sinn Féin party recently introduced a[grid prioritization framework](https://sinnfein.ie/news/pa-daly-td-introduces-legislation-to-ensure-delivery-of-housing-ahead-of-data-centres/)\. “If other European countries are looking at Ireland,” she added, “I would caution them to be very careful what you wish for\.” ## **AI boom meets crowded grid** Ireland has long been the data center capital of the EU, but as AI accelerates other countries face the same grid constraints\. Data centers used 23% of electricity[consumption](https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-dcmec/datacentresmeteredelectricityconsumption2025/keyfindings/)in Ireland in 2025, according to the Central Statistics Office\. In Dublin, where most of the country’s data centers sit, that figure topped 50%, according to Hannah Daly, a professor of sustainable energy at University College Cork\. It could reach 36% nationally by 2035, according to Paweł Czyżak, the founder and CEO of AI and energy think tank Ornaq\. The pattern holds across the bloc: EU and United Kingdom data center consumption is set to double by 2030, reaching 5\.5% of the EU and UK’s energy consumption, Czyżak said\. The resulting queues are building — in five EU countries, grid connection requests now exceed existing peak power demand entirely, meaning those countries would need to double total grid capacity to meet them\. “Grid queues are growing everywhere, and they are getting to a point where they are way too big to be reasonable,” Czyżak said\. “If data centers start colliding with housing or other important societal needs, then it becomes a big social backlash issue, and then you won’t build anything at all\.” ## **Housing and climate goals wait for power** Across Europe, critical projects are stalled due to lack of grid capacity — from[80,000](https://www.energyconnects.com/news/utilities/2022/june/amsterdam-s-clogged-grid-is-putting-zero-emission-dreams-at-risk/)new homes in Spain to[Amsterdam’s unelectrified transit network](https://www.energyconnects.com/news/utilities/2022/june/amsterdam-s-clogged-grid-is-putting-zero-emission-dreams-at-risk/), according to Bloomberg\. Part of the problem is that for years, Europe’s transmission system operators, or TSOs, have operated on a first\-come, first\-served model, forcing smaller electrification projects to wait behind big data centers or speculative projects that got in line first,[according](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52025XC06703)to the European Commission\. Some member states have improvised fixes\. In Ireland, data centers are[required](https://www.cru.ie/about-us/news/the-cru-publishes-its-decision-on-new-electricity-connection-policy-for-data-centres/)to bring their own power generation or energy storage as of December 2025\. That’s a move which has pushed many towards natural gas, shifting strain from the electricity grid to the gas supply\. “Ireland’s example shows that the systemic effects of data centers go beyond who gets onto the grid,” said Daly\. “It’s also creating big pressure on electricity bills, it has ripple effects on gas security and climate targets, and there are large investments needed across the whole system to mitigate those impacts\.” Antoine Oger, the interim executive director of the Institute for European Environmental Policy, said the rush to connect data centers runs counter to EU climate targets, crowding out renewable energy, and much\-needed electrification of transport or heating\. “Once we scale the grids and the renewable energy generation, then we will be arguably in a place to support data centers,” he said\. “But at the moment when we are struggling to scale renewable energy generation, then AI is coming in and lowering the prioritization of areas that we really need\.” ## **Europe’s grids prioritization push** Member states are now beginning to create grid prioritization frameworks to control which projects get plugged in first\. “Who gets access to electricity?” said Jill McArdle, an international corporate campaigner with Beyond Fossil Fuels\. “That’s where the grid prioritization framework starts to look very, very interesting because this really gets to the heart of the problem of that conflict between resources across Europe\.” Denmark’s government[approved](https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/10/02/denmark-agrees-new-grid-connection-procedure/)the bloc’s most ambitious model in October: a new four\-tier prioritization[model](https://cdn2.gopublic.dk/kefm/Media/639264510806153850/Aftale%20om%20akutplanen.pdf)that moves data centers to the back of the queue, while projects like housing, renewable energy connections and batteries moved ahead\. Finland is pursuing a similar model, but with more flexibility for smaller data centers and those that bring their own power to join the grid\. The issue has received extensive attention in Finland after a Google contractor illegally[felled](https://fortune.com/2026/10/26/wolves-finland-google-1300-acres-data-center/)over 400,000 trees for a proposed data center project\. The legislative proposal drew nearly 200 comments over the summer\. “We are not trying to scare away the data center developers,” said Noora Lindqvist, an associate at HPP Attorneys in Helsinki\. “This just means that we have to protect the consumers and production facilities and secure the grid capacity for the absolutely necessary parties by directing data centres to areas in which there is plenty of grid capacity\.” The fight over who gets plugged in first isn’t just a question of resource allocation, climate or housing — it's also an opportunity for Europe to build trust with citizens during the AI transition, said Namita Kambli, a senior policy analyst at the Centre for Future Generations\. She said that grid prioritization frameworks — like the ones pursued in Denmark or Finland — needed to make clear exactly how governments choose which projects matter, with more room for community input\. Other countries are moving too\. In the Netherlands, the grid operator[introduced](https://www.tennet.eu/nl-en/news/new-allocation-grid-congestion-affects-who-receives-transmission-capacity)a new prioritization framework and Spain is proposing a new law to make data centers[bring](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/spain-relaxes-initial-proposal-data-center-rules-2026-10-26/)more of their own renewable energy\. In Ireland, opposition Member of Parliament Pa Daly said he modeled his own prioritization[bill](https://sinnfein.ie/news/pa-daly-td-introduces-legislation-to-ensure-delivery-of-housing-ahead-of-data-centres/)— which would prioritize housing and hospitals over data centers — on the Dutch\. .jpeg)Data center park in Dublin, Ireland\. \(Peder Schaefer\) The EU, meanwhile, has moved cautiously\. A June roadmap asked grid operators, governments and data center operators to cooperate on grid planning\. A December 2025 Commission guidance[document](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52025XC06703)on grid prioritization, urged member states to shift from a first\-come\-first\-served to a first\-ready\-first\-served model to prioritize shovel\-ready projects\. The EU may move toward implementing some of that guidance into the[upcoming](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52026PC0600)network charges act, said the MEP leading parliamentary work on the proposal Bruno Tobback \(S&D, BE\)\. However, member states have[argued](https://agenceurope.eu/en/bulletin/article/13968/7/excessive-harmonisation-encroachment-on-powers-eu-member-states-critical-of-commission-proposal-on-network-charges)that the plans would encroach on national powers over energy policy — and the Commission has[acknowledged](https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-12071-2026-INIT/en/pdf)that discretion for the exact kind of grid prioritization framework used is up to national authorities\. ## **The economic and sovereignty case for plugging in** Data center advocates warn that grid prioritization frameworks could cost Europe economic growth and push it Europe even further behind in the AI race\. Between 2010 and 2024, data centers added over €22 billion in value to the Irish economy and 17,000 jobs,[according](https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/publications/publication-files/the-value-of-data-centres-to-ireland.pdf)to a report by the accounting firm KPMG for the Irish government\. “Europe would be crazy to turn away billions and billions in investment at a time when economic growth is flagging,” said Bill Echikson, a senior fellow with the tech policy program at the Center for European Policy Analysis\. Others see creeping state overreach\. Grid prioritization schemes give the government an outsized hand in which projects go forward and which don’t, said Danish Member of Parliament Steffen Frølund, who sits with the center\-right Liberal Alliance and opposed Denmark’s grids prioritization law\. “All data centers are now pushed to the back of the queue, so there’s uncertainty that’s already killing projects,” he said\. “Two completely equal projects seen from the grid’s perspective are not treated equally under the new scheme\.” There’s also an argument to be made for more data centers for European tech sovereignty\. The Commission wants the EU to[triple data center](https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/energy-efficiency/energy-efficiency-targets-directive-and-rules/energy-efficiency-directive/energy-performance-data-centres_en)capacity by 2035 to reduce reliance on the U\.S\. for compute needs, and has proposed a series of AI gigafactories backed by public funds\. “The need for more investment in grids is one of the few things that is reasonably consensual in the Parliament,” said MEP Tobback\. “We’re literally 15 years behind the curve here and we need to invest\.” ***Follow the developments shaping Europe*** *Subscribe to*The Continental*to receive*The Parliament's*latest reporting, analysis and opinion to your inbox, delivered every weekday morning\.[Sign up for free here](https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/more/newsletter-registration.htm?utm_source=footnote&utm_medium=footnote&utm_campaign=newsletter)\.*