Earlier this month, Ireland’s energy regulator began implementing a conditional grid connection framework for data centers, reopening access to power after a years-long de facto moratorium and signaling a shift toward the need for new facilities to help support the power system they depend on.
The measure reflects more than a policy adjustment in a country. For construction companies active in data center markets, it underscores a reality already emerging in the US: access to electricity is no longer taken for granted. Instead, it is increasingly shaping whether projects can move forward, how they are designed and when construction can begin.
Network access becomes the gate factor
Federal investigation helps explain why regulators are restricting access to the network. A US Department of Energy analysis prepared by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that data center electricity demand could nearly triple by the end of the decade, driven largely by cloud computing and artificial intelligence workloads.
Congressional Research Service reports have similarly warned that large, concentrated loads are arriving faster than assumptions built into traditional grid planning.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff have echoed those concerns in recent reliability assessments, warning that rapid load growth is clashing with slow generation and transmission development and increasing risks during periods of peak demand.
Interconnection queue data tracked by Berkeley Lab shows unprecedented delays in regions of the US grid, with multi-year waits for studies and upgrades becoming common.
For builders, the implication is straightforward: Data center projects that once relied primarily on land availability and permits are now constrained by whether utilities can deliver power without compromising system reliability.
US markets are already imposing conditions
While Ireland’s move drew attention for its formal moratorium, similar constraints are emerging in US markets through a range of regulatory and utility mechanisms.
In northern Virginia, the nation’s largest data center, PJM Interconnection, the regional network operator for much of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, is anticipating demand growth that far exceeds historical norms.
Utility filings show that some proposed data center campuses require new substations and major transmission upgrades before construction can begin, effectively moving electrical infrastructure to the front of the project schedule.
Texas faces parallel pressures. ERCOT, the state’s independent grid operator, has reported an increase in high-load interconnection requests tied to data centers and other power-hungry facilities, prompting closer scrutiny of how the new demand affects grid reliability. Midwest regions are seeing similar dynamics, with MISO, a Midwest and South grid operator, documenting growing congestion and long-term transmission needs as hyperscale facilities expand into states that previously traded abundant, low-cost power.
In the regions, public services no longer treat network connections as a formality. Approvals are increasingly conditional on the infrastructures that need to be designed, financed and built.
Construction scope expands upstream
These conditions translate directly into an expanded construction scope and a change in project sequencing. Developers are increasingly being asked to include on-site generation, battery energy storage systems and grid-interactive substations in initial project planning.
Research from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the administration renamed the National Laboratory of the Rockies, shows why regulators rely on behind-the-meter resources to stabilize systems strained by large, inflexible loads.
As ENR previously reported, data center developers have already begun pairing new campuses with self-generated power, including co-located generation and storage, to limit net demand on the grid and ensure power availability in constrained markets.
This approach is becoming less optional and more structural as utilities tighten interconnection rules and require large loads to carry additional infrastructure. One example is Chevron’s plan to build a dedicated power generation facility in West Texas to support data center demand, underscoring how developers are increasingly securing grid access through on-site generation capacity.
Environmental permitting and decarbonization requirements are also shaping regulatory responses. Federal and state policies have made it more difficult to add traditional generation quickly, while large transmission projects face lengthy environmental reviews.
As a result, regulators are more inclined to approve projects that limit net grid demand or incorporate flexible on-site power systems, adding additional electrical and environmental reach to data center construction rather than relying solely on grid expansion.
As electrical infrastructure moves from a late-stage utility interface to an early design controller, preconstruction timelines are stretching. Industry analyzes and utility documents indicate that the required upgrades to network and on-site power systems can add tens of millions of dollars to large data center projects and extend preconstruction schedules by a year or more, depending on the scope.
Contractors active in the data center markets say the shift is expanding the scope of the early stages, with electrical infrastructure decisions shaping site designs and sequencing well before vertical construction begins.
A buildable problem, not a temporary hiatus
Think tanks, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the World Resources Institute, have framed grid congestion as an infrastructure investment challenge rather than a short-term policy issue.
The latter says transmission expansion, new generation and advanced substations are widely seen as necessary, but their long lead times conflict with the pace of data center development.
Ohio regulators approved new AEP Ohio interconnection terms for data centers that include minimum billing and warranty provisions, while the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved a new rate class for large users that required certain large customers, including data centers, to pay minimum percentages of contracted demand to protect other ratepayers from infrastructure construction costs.
This year, West Virginia enacted legislation creating “certified microgrid districts” to pair data centers with dedicated generation while protecting other utility customers from the cost of carrying large new loads.
Ireland’s move makes explicit what U.S. utilities and their state managers are signaling through interconnection rules and queuing reforms: grid access is no longer unconditional, and large energy users are increasingly being asked to help build the infrastructure they depend on.
For contractors, the lesson is clear: energy availability has become as central to data center delivery as steel, concrete and fibre, and securing it increasingly requires more to build than a shell.
