Jul 28, 2026 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji
Israel’s power grid is facing challenges managing rising demand from new data centre projects. The Israeli Electricity Authority has paused processing new data centre grid connection applications for 140 days, describing the move as an “emergency brake” to avoid making commitments the system may not be able to support.
The 140-day freeze will apply to data centre projects seeking 8MW or more of capacity. Israel’s grid operator NOGA has received 19GW of new data centre connection requests in two months, bringing total pending applications to around 27GW nearly three times the country’s average electricity consumption. During the pause, the Electricity Authority, Ministry of Energy, and NOGA will review applications and develop new rules for allocating power resources and filtering viable projects from speculative requests.
The surge in requests followed Israel’s National Cyber Defense Bill, which classified data centres as national infrastructure and eased planning restrictions. The freeze has already affected developers, with VisionWave abandoning plans for a hyperscale data centre in Israel. The market is still expected to grow, with major investments planned in the coming years.
