Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to increase the proportion of data centres that locate in areas with excess renewables capacity.

Data centres can bring down constraint costs if they locate behind existing transmission constraints where they can make use of renewable generation that would otherwise be curtailed. This is why government recently consulted on reforms to align data centre connections to regional infrastructure targets, delivering on government’s ambitions for digital infrastructure and AI, while balancing the needs of our energy system.