New datacentres risk doubling Great Britain’s electricity use, regulator says

Ofgem says about 140 proposed projects, driven by AI use, could require more power than current peak demand

The amount of power being sought by new datacentre projects in Great Britain would exceed the national current peak electricity consumption, according to an industry watchdog.

Ofgem said about 140 proposed datacentre schemes, driven by use of artificial intelligence, could require 50 gigawatts of electricity - 5GW more than the country's current peak demand.