Data Centre Watch Updated 24 October 2026, 13:03 UTC
Data Centre Watch
The local fight over one field is one row in a national rush. This is a rolling, fully sourced record of what changed — the schemes, the planning decisions, the power and water, and the wider world picture.
days under a hosepipe ban
Under a hosepipe ban for 107 days — since 10 July 2026 (as of 24 October 2026).
Affinity Water — Central region (incl. WD5), extended to the East region
11 areas in drought, parts of 4 in severe · reservoirs 54% · the water picture →
Latest
88 entries matching · showing 61–75
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Data-centre fires and power failures have doubled since 2024
The Energy Incident Register counts 8 electrical fires/power failures at data centres in 2024, 20 in 2025 and 19 already in 2026 — nearly half of its 93 incidents since 2010 clustering in the last three years. UPS and battery rooms (22) and backup generators (15) are the most common named failure points.
Why it matters: The build-out's physical fragility: more power density and compressed commissioning schedules, failing most often in the power gear.
Source: Energy Incident Register / DCD [C]
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Oracle's 1.3GW Wisconsin campus delayed as grid review restarts
State regulators withdrew the transmission application's completeness finding after 564 revisions were filed, resetting the clock and pushing grid connection — and customer delivery — past 2027. Morgan Stanley now warns full power may not arrive until October 2028 (downside: spring 2029).
Why it matters: Even a gigawatt-scale AI campus is now gated by the grid and its paperwork, not capital.
Source: TechBriefe [C]
Changes (2)
- — Morgan Stanley: full power may not arrive until October 2028 ('Project Lighthouse'); downside case runs to spring 2029.
- — First filed.
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Broadcom, Apollo and Blackstone launch a $35bn AI-infrastructure venture
Broadcom and the asset managers Apollo and Blackstone have formed a $35bn partnership to expand advanced AI computing capacity — another sign of the capital now chasing data-centre build-out.
Why it matters: The money is getting bigger and more financialised — the financing side of the boom, again.
Source: CNNBC [C]
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US: about half of 2026's planned data-centre capacity delayed or cancelled
Analysts put roughly half of the ~12GW of US data-centre capacity planned for 2026 as delayed or cancelled, with PJM wholesale prices up ~76% year on year and ~2,061GW stuck in interconnection queues. Local opposition has hardened: 379+ US jurisdictions now have moratoriums or bans, with ~$68bn of development stalled.
Why it matters: The binding constraint is now power and permits — and the backlash has become a nationwide planning fact.
Source: Achilles / inprofile [C]
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China switches on a wind-powered underwater data centre
The Shanghai Lingang Underwater Data Center — 24MW, ~10km offshore and ~10m beneath the sea — runs on a nearby offshore wind farm and uses seawater for cooling; officials say it uses 20%+ less energy than comparable land-based facilities. It entered service in May.
Why it matters: A different answer to the same problem — cooling and power — that the UK is still arguing about on land.
Source: Ilke News Agency [C]
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Indiana approves power plan for Google's 390MW Monrovia data centre
State regulators unanimously approved AES Indiana's solar, battery and transmission project to serve Google's 390MW Monrovia campus — the first filed under a 2025 law requiring large users to cover 80% of assigned costs. Google pays all direct costs, but $74m of network upgrades go into the retail rate base, which consumer advocates contested.
Why it matters: The 'who pays for the grid?' test, run through a regulator — and the first verdict under a who-pays law.
Source: WFYI [V]
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Nvidia forms an alliance to build a 'power-flexible' AI data centre
Nvidia has assembled partners into an alliance to build an AI data centre designed to flex its power consumption rather than demand a fixed maximum feed — a move upstream into the electricity bottleneck that gates its own accelerator market. Partners, capacity and timeline were not disclosed.
Why it matters: The chipmaker is now organising around power, not just silicon — because that's what caps how many chips can run.
Source: Die Signal / Yahoo Finance [C]
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AWS plans 36 data centres on a 4.5GW gas plant in Pennsylvania
A 36-building campus across 1,100 acres on the former Homer City coal station, powered mainly by a new 4.5GW gas plant being built alongside it; construction runs in four stages to 2036.
Why it matters: A coal station swapped for gas-fed compute — the scale and the carbon, in one site.
Source: EUROPE SAYS [C]
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Google's $15bn India campus faces local resistance
Google's gigawatt-scale AI hub in Visakhapatnam — its biggest outside the US, part of a $15bn investment — is meeting protests; Google says it will use air cooling rather than the area's scarce water, but activists want a state-wide moratorium until the impacts are known.
Why it matters: Air-versus-water cooling and the 'assess it first' demand — the campaign's exact questions, exported.
Source: Gulf News / AFP [C]
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PJM gets emergency power to curtail data centres in a heatwave
The US grid operator for 13 states won emergency DOE approval to cut power to data centres and large loads that have backup generation during a record heatwave, with demand forecast near 166GW.
Why it matters: The grid is now formally allowed to switch big AI loads off — the 'always-on' assumption, ended.
Source: bbvk.org [C]
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Nvidia plans Israel's largest server farm ($1.5bn, 64MW)
Nvidia is set to lease a 30,000 m² facility near Yokneam for a 64MW Blackwell-powered site, part of a push making Israel its second-largest R&D hub outside the US.
Why it matters: The chipmaker moving further into owning the buildings, not just the chips.
Source: G&B Daily News [C]
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AMD and Anthropic plan up to 2GW of MI450 compute
A strategic partnership to deploy up to 2GW of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs in Helios rackscale systems, with the first gigawatt from H1 2027 — a challenge to Nvidia's lock on AI capacity.
Why it matters: Compute supply is diversifying, but every gigawatt still lands on the same grid.
Source: DailySynapse [C]
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CoreWeave enters India with a 240MW Navi Mumbai campus
CoreWeave will be sole tenant across three 80MW buildings at AdaniConneX's Taloja campus near Navi Mumbai — its first India site, with room to double to 480MW and NVIDIA Vera Rubin in liquid-cooled halls from mid-2028.
Why it matters: AI compute spreading into new power and water systems — the same build, a different grid.
Source: Data Centre Magazine [C]
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Project Longhorn: 490MW of on-site gas in Texas, despite a permit halt
A $366m Texas data centre ('Project Longhorn', tied to Anthropic) has been filed for 490MW of IT capacity powered by 710MW of on-site simple-cycle gas turbines — advancing through an alternative regulatory pathway while the Governor's order halts new permits pending an ERCOT grid audit.
Why it matters: Purpose-built gas generation as the default for AI, and projects routing around state-level pauses.
Source: Data Center Digest [C]
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Texas freezes new data-centre permits as its queue hits 474GW
ERCOT has frozen all new data-centre permits after its interconnection queue swelled to 474GW — about 90% of it data centres. Only 28 of 377 data-centre firms answered a state water-use survey, and Amazon's colocation plan with Talen's nuclear plant was rejected.
Why it matters: The state that sold itself on cheap power and light regulation has paused the queue — and most operators won't even answer the survey.
Source: SaaS News [C]
Watchlist — what lands next
| What | State | When |
|---|---|---|
| Data-centre National Policy Statement (NPS) | Still unpublished; projects already being directed into the NSIP regime without it. | Expected 'shortly after' the Jan 2026 regulations |
| Ofgem 'Curate' data-centre connection reform | Consultation closed 17 Sep 2026; decision pending — commitment fee £237,500–£712,500/MW. | Decision later in 2026 |
| Scotland — hyperscale planning guidance | Parliament agreed no decisions on hyperscale applications until guidance is published. | Guidance expected by December 2026 |
| Draft London Plan — data-centre policy GLE3 | Consultation closed 15 October 2026; responses under consideration. | Next draft / adoption pending |
| National Scheme of Delegation for planning functions (SI 2026/854) | Standardises which applications go to officers vs committee; non-compliant committee decisions open to judicial review. | In force 31 October 2026 |
| EU data-centre standards and rating scheme | Commission has adopted a data-centre sustainability rating scheme; consultation on minimum performance standards remains open. | Consultation closes 14 December 2026 |
| Environmental Audit Committee report (HC 22) | Inquiry 'Risks and opportunities to the sustainability of data centres in the UK'; report + government response due. | Awaiting publication |
| Three Rivers Local Plan examination | Plan submitted; examination in H1 2027, adoption targeted Sep 2027. | Submission 30 November 2026 |
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Fully sourced, no invented numbers
Every entry names its source and how it is known — verified, a designated claim, our calculation, or a gap. Where a claim is contested, we say so. See all reports & explainers →