VibeusScotland’s AI data-centre connection queue is much larger than the... - Vibeus
Scotland’s AI data-centre connection queue is much larger than the public planning trail suggests—and there is no public register showing the full demand side.
At a Holyrood energy-committee hearing, UK grid operator NESO’s Matt Magill initially put the Scottish pipeline at close to 30 data centres and about 9.7 GW. NESO later corrected the figure: 28 transmission-connected applications representing roughly 8.864 GW of potential demand, more than 800 MW below the number given to MSPs. These are applications in a queue, not guaranteed future electricity use.
Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) has identified around two dozen projects in planning records and public announcements, with possible demand of about 7.3 GW. The gap is hard to investigate because Britain’s public Transmission Entry Capacity register covers generators and storage, not major consumers. Updated twice a week, it lets people search by project, developer and site, see contracted capacity, and check stages such as “Scoping,” “Awaiting Consents” and “Consents Approved.” There is no equivalent public demand-connections register. In a December 2025 freedom-of-information response, NESO said the relevant information sat across contracts and other datasets; consolidating and reviewing it, then manually identifying which demand projects are data centres, would take considerable time. NESO says it is considering a register.
The visibility gap starts before a planning application. Some connection dates run into the late 2030s, so developers may not need to demonstrate planning permission for years. Yet they can seek a grid connection for a particular Scottish site—potentially drawing hundreds of megawatts—before a proposal appears on a council planning portal. NESO did not disclose locations or developers, citing commercially sensitive customer information. It also cautioned that pipeline figures are not confirmed consumption: projects must meet milestones and wait for network reinforcements, and some will never connect. Grid-connection reforms could remove speculative applications too.
For scale, Ofgem estimated in July that about 73 GW of data-centre demand across roughly 315 projects was in Britain’s connection pipeline. Energy-systems expert Callum MacIver says greater visibility would help; the number and size of new demand centres make strategic planning increasingly necessary. APRS director Kat Jones wants a definitive public list and says reporting only once planning applications are filed gives communities too little notice. She also argues Scotland’s data-centre queue is already more than twice winter peak demand—a claim from the campaign, not a confirmed NESO consumption figure.
