Denmark data centres could be pushed behind defence, healthcare, households and Danish businesses in the queue for electricity grid access, under an emergency plan proposed by the government to manage limited capacity in the national power network.
The proposal was announced by Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities (klima-, energi- og forsyningsministeren) Samira Nawa, who said the government wants to move away from a simple first-come, first-served principle and allow Energinet and electricity companies to prioritise projects according to wider public needs. The parties in the Folketing are expected to discuss the issue on Friday, with the government hoping to present a legislative proposal after the summer recess.
Why Denmark wants to rewrite the grid queue
Denmark is facing a growing backlog of projects waiting to be connected to the electricity grid. The pressure comes from several directions at once: data centres, batteries, Power-to-X projects, electric vehicles, heat pumps, businesses seeking to electrify production and households moving away from fossil fuels.
Until now, grid access has largely followed the order in which projects applied. The government argues that this model is no longer adequate when available capacity is limited and when some projects have a direct effect on public services, households and the green transition.
“We will put societal considerations first, and then foreign data centres will have to stand at the back,” Nawa told DR. “We will prioritise areas such as defence and healthcare, but also ordinary households and families who buy an electric car and need a charging point.”
The minister stressed that the proposal is not a ban on data centres. The issue, she said, is whether very large electricity users should be able to reserve scarce grid capacity while Danish companies, public services and households wait. “We must not end up in a situation where Danish companies cannot get space in the electricity grid,” she said.
How data centres compete with electric cars and heat pumps
The political debate has become concrete because of the scale of the electricity demand involved. According to figures cited by DR from the Danish Energy Agency and Energinet, a large data centre such as one planned in Holbæk could require around 350 megawatts of power capacity.
That amount is comparable to the capacity needed for 73 electric vehicle charging parks along Denmark’s motorway network, 31,800 home charging points or 50,000 air-to-water heat pumps in private homes.
These comparisons explain why data centres have become a sensitive political issue. They are part of Europe’s digital infrastructure and are increasingly important for cloud services and artificial intelligence. At the same time, they are highly energy-intensive and can concentrate very large demand in specific local areas.
For Denmark, the question is not only how much green electricity the country can produce, but also how quickly it can move that electricity through the grid to the places where it is needed. This makes grid access a strategic question, not just a technical one.
Energinet’s bottleneck has become a political problem
The emergency plan comes after months of mounting pressure on Energinet, the state-owned company responsible for central parts of Denmark’s electricity transmission system. In March, Energinet paused new grid connection agreements in order to assess the scale of demand and develop new principles for handling large projects.
Energinet has said that requests for new electricity consumption have grown far beyond earlier planning assumptions. Applications now represent a potential increase many times larger than Denmark’s current peak electricity consumption. For very large connections, the waiting time could in some cases reach five to ten years.
The situation has also drawn criticism from the Danish National Audit Office (Rigsrevisionen). In April, it concluded that Energinet’s management of grid expansion had been “very unsatisfactory”, with about 70 percent of ongoing grid expansion projects delayed. The delays have also made grid development more than DKK 10 billion (about €1.34 billion) more expensive than planned.
The government’s new political programme includes an emergency plan for the electricity grid and a broader 2035 energy infrastructure plan. It also sets aside DKK 2 billion a year, about €268 million, for electrification and energy. But the short-term problem remains: demand for electricity connections is rising faster than the grid can be expanded.
A Danish data centre debate with an EU dimension
The Danish discussion reflects a wider European dilemma. The European Commission, the EU executive, has warned that digital infrastructure must be integrated into the energy system in a sustainable and transparent way. Its new roadmap on digitalisation and artificial intelligence in energy links data centres, grid management, demand-side flexibility and cybersecurity.
For the Nordic region, the issue is especially relevant. Denmark and its neighbours have attracted interest from international technology companies because of renewable electricity, political stability and strong digital infrastructure. But as electricity demand rises, governments are under pressure to decide which projects should receive priority when grid capacity is scarce.
Denmark’s proposed model may therefore become a test case for a broader European question: how to balance the needs of the digital economy with electrification, industrial competitiveness, public services and household energy use.
The emergency plan does not solve the underlying capacity challenge on its own. It can decide who waits longer, but it cannot replace the need for faster grid expansion, clearer permitting and better use of flexibility in the electricity system. The next debate in Denmark will be about whether the new priority model is transparent, fair and strong enough to support both the green transition and the country’s digital future.
