Data Centres: Energy and Water Consumption

Lord Harris of Haringey Excerpts

Tuesday 8th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The Government believe that the best way to deliver price reductions for clean power is the clean power 2030 mission, so that the marginal price of electricity is set by gas less and less often. The increase in renewables will allow that, plus the advent of small modular reactors. The AI Security Institute is not the place to consider energy security; that is the AI Energy Council. Its sustainability working group is considering whether renewable and low-carbon energy solutions should be adopted, and where; how innovation in AI hardware and chip design can improve energy efficiency; whether new metrics, alongside the PUE—power usage efficiency—metric should be introduced; and the impact of new energy solutions such as small modular reactors. That speaks to the issue of resilience.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, I refer to my interest as chair of the National Preparedness Commission. I am grateful to the noble Baroness for referring to a report that we issued. My question is a slightly different one. Given that data centres are now an integral and necessary part of the infrastructure of this country in the private sector and the public sector, who is responsible for their security?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The Government are aiming to designate data centres as a type of commercial project to be considered under the nationally significant infrastructure projects plan, allowing the Secretary of State to decide on applications for new centres and bringing this into clear view of the security agencies. The security agencies are, of course, engaged in the question of how to ensure the security of what we have in data centres. On the broader point about the data itself, that is covered by the AI Security Institute.