The Grid, Planning & Heat Reuse
Critical national infrastructure status, AI growth zones, connection queues, and the push to stop rejecting a town's worth of low-grade heat.
10 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026
In September 2024 the UK government designated data centres critical national infrastructure, putting them in the same category as power stations and water treatment works. Within eighteen months, planning rules had been rewritten to favour them, AI growth zones had been mapped, and the electricity system operator was modelling scenarios in which the sector's demand quadruples by 2030. Energy management in this sector now extends beyond the meter: where facilities can connect, what the grid can supply, and what happens to the river of low-grade heat they reject are strategic questions, and this lesson covers the landscape as it stands in mid-2026.