Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced a plan to open up Britain's power grid to competition, introducing Great British Grid (GB Grid) on Tuesday. GB Grid will be a publicly owned arm of Great British Energy, designed to challenge existing network operators and speed up electricity connections for businesses.
Under the new proposals, businesses will have the option to construct their own connection infrastructure, with GB Grid also able to invest in these projects. Mr Burnham stated that grid delays are "dragging growth down" and deterring investment.
The initiative could be particularly impactful for the data centre industry, where access to electricity is a significant barrier to new developments. Andreas Rathmann, director of utilities at CyrusOne, commented that "More competition in the delivery of power infrastructure will benefit the data centre sector."
According to Ofgem, Britain's demand connection queue increased from 41GW in November 2024 to 125GW by June 2025. Data centres are responsible for at least 80GW of these applications, exceeding Britain's current peak electricity demand.
Ofgem proposed a new commitment fee in July for large data centres seeking grid access, alongside stricter milestones for developers. The regulator's consultation on these proposals has now concluded, with a decision pending.