The UK’s digital infrastructure is growing fast. Data centres, AI, and industrial decarbonisation are driving electricity demand beyond what the grid can handle. This study explores how gas networks could provide flexible, low-carbon power to keep the UK’s digital growth on track.
The problem
The UK is experiencing a sharp rise in electricity demand, driven by the rapid growth of AI clusters, hyperscale data centres and energy-intensive industrial decarbonisation – sectors vital to innovation, inward investment, and regional economic growth. Currently, around 400 traditional data centres are operational, planned, or under construction, representing over 1 GW of live demand and projected to exceed 4.8 GW once fully built out.
Data centres already account for approximately 2.5% of UK electricity consumption, a figure expected to rise to 6% by 2030, putting pressure on efforts to decarbonise other sectors. To illustrate the scale, a single 100 MW data centre consumes as much electricity annually as approximately 324,000 typical UK households.
UK data centre demand is projected to grow at an annual rate of 10–15%, contributing to growing uncertainty over future grid capacity. This surge in demand is placing unprecedented strain on the UK’s electricity grid, causing significant delays for critical infrastructure and low-carbon projects seeking connection.
Despite a major electricity grid upgrade programme now underway, the pace of change is lagging behind demand. Grid infrastructure and connection processes are increasingly overwhelmed, leading to stalled developments, lost investment opportunities and rising concerns over the UK’s global competitiveness. Furthermore, public opposition to new grid infrastructure is adding to planning delays, further complicating the path forward.
The background
Wales & West Utilities (WWU) and Scotia Gas Networks (SGN) commissioned this project to explore how the UK’s gas distribution networks could support the growing and decarbonisation of the data centre sector. As one of the fastest growing and most capital-intensive segments of the UK built environment, data centres are critical to national digital infrastructure and economic competitiveness. In the second half of 2024 alone, more than £25 billion was committed to new UK data centre investment.
The project set out to assess how the gas distribution networks could help meet the current and future energy demands of the UK data centre industry, by identifying opportunities and evaluating the feasibility of their role in supporting sector growth and contributing to a sustainable, net zero transition.
The process
As part of this project, Apollo, in collaboration with Stantec, delivered four key work packages to assess the potential role of the gas distribution networks in supporting the growing energy needs of the UK data centre sector. The approach combined technical analysis, stakeholder engagement, and feasibility assessment to provide a well-rounded understanding of future opportunities.
Stakeholder Engagement
We engaged continuously with key stakeholders across the data centre sector, including direct consultations with operators and developers, to ensure the project was informed by accurate, up-to-date insights on current and future energy needs. In parallel, we worked with technology providers to assess the maturity, suitability, and feasibility of on-site gas-to-power solutions for data centres.
Baseline Review
We carried out a comprehensive review of how data centres currently meet their energy needs, how these demands are projected to evolve, and the key barriers to future growth including electricity grid constraints and planning limitations. As part of this, we conducted a spatial demand assessment to map current and anticipated data centre power demand within the WWU and SGN service areas, identifying existing high-demand clusters and potential future hotspots.
Feasibility of Gas Network Use
Working closely with Wales & West Utilities (WWU) and Scotia Gas Networks (SGN), we explored the potential for gas distribution networks to support data centre power needs through the use of on-site gas-to-power generation and the integration of low-carbon gases like hydrogen and biomethane. This involved identifying areas within the gas networks with sufficient capacity to support these solutions.
Case Studies
We developed a set of case studies examining different data centre typologies and their compatibility with various energy vectors and integration with different gas-to-power solutions.
The solution
We delivered a comprehensive study report that identified a clear opportunity for the gas distribution networks to support on-site power generation at data centres through the use of fuel cells and internal combustion engines.
The analysis revealed several locations where existing gas infrastructure has sufficient capacity to transport additional volumes of gas to supply emerging data centre developments. The study also found that gas-to-power technologies are already commercially mature and broadly compatible with the UK’s evolving energy transition pathway, from a 100% natural gas network toward a fully decarbonised system, including varying levels of hydrogen blending and, ultimately, 100% hydrogen.
Working on this project with Apollo and Stantec has been a genuinely rewarding experience. What stood out most was their collaborative approach and deep technical expertise — they brought clarity and structure to a complex challenge from day one. Their ability to navigate the intersection of innovation, decarbonisation, and infrastructure constraints made a real difference. From my perspective, the outcome wasn’t just a robust feasibility study, but a clear, actionable pathway that could shape how we power data centres in the UK for years to come.
– Jacob Sami, Wales & West Utilities
The outcome
We provided WWU and SGN with a strategic vision for how their existing gas network infrastructure could play a pivotal role in enabling the rapid growth of the UK data centre sector. Through a series of illustrative case studies, it outlined high-level concepts demonstrating how on-site gas-to-power generation could meet electricity demand in specific locations.
Crucially, the work also identified how this approach could relieve pressure on the already-constrained electricity grid, supporting the broader decarbonisation drive and the UK’s ambition for a clean power system by 2030 by freeing up grid capacity for other critical low-carbon projects to connect.
In addition, the study highlighted areas for further exploration, including integration with combined heat and power (CHP), carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), absorption cooling, and district heat networks.
These findings form a strong foundation for future research and collaboration, helping to shape a coordinated pathway toward flexible, low-carbon energy solutions for the UK’s growing data centre sector.
Full technical report
View the complete report – available soon.
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