POWER-hungry AI data centres want almost twice as much electricity as the whole UK uses in a year.
Tech firms have asked for 73 gigawatts of grid connections for planned giant server farms, according to watchdog Ofgem.
If run flat out, they would guzzle 639 terawatt hours a year — almost double the 323TWh Britain used in all of 2025.
It is equivalent to plugging in 200million extra homes.
Figures show that 315 data centre projects are in the queue for mains supplies — on top of the 500 already built.
proposes a fee of up to £712,500 per megawatt to wheedle out “speculative projects”.
told the conference Britain must “move faster” on data centres.
PM has rejected calls for a halt to new sites, while unveiling a publicly-owned company that will let firms build their own power connections.
Plans were also lodged for the world’s biggest data centre in Dumfries and Galloway.
The £16.5billion, 1,000-megawatt site will use as much power as 2.5million homes.
Water UK says data centres in England are set to use 19.8million litres a day by 2030.
