Norway Grid Operator Statnett Halts New Data Center Capacity Reservations

Statnett, the state-owned grid operator in Norway, has temporarily stopped reserving new transmission capacity for data centers. The halt, announced on 9 November, is expected to be lifted no later than 1 August 2027. It suspends new reservation requests and the processing of new applications for approval of facility functionality under section 14 of Norway's system responsibility regulations, including applications already received for sites connecting direFeatured: High-voltage electrical substation equipment operated by Statnett in Norway.ctly to the 420 kV grid, according to Statnett.

Statnett describes the decision as a risk-reducing measure for the power system rather than a general halt. Existing connections are unaffected, and facilities that already hold Statnett's technical approval may still connect. Pending regional-grid applications with commissioning due soon will keep being processed, and Statnett says it may assess some smaller projects. The suspension applies to connections above 100 MW where Statnett handles the applications, according to the law firm Wiersholm.

"Data centers represent large volumes of capacity and have technical characteristics of great importance for safe and stable system operation," said Peer Olav Østli, executive vice president for system operation and market at Statnett.

Statnett says it needs time to set requirements covering when data centers must stay connected during grid faults, how quickly their load can change, and how to reduce the risk of grid oscillations.

The queue shows the pressure. About 800 MW of data centers are connected to the Norwegian grid today, 4,200 MW has reserved capacity, 9,100 MW sits in the capacity queue, and requests cover another 18,000 MW. Norway's highest recorded consumption is just over 25,000 MW.

Less than an hour after Statnett's announcement, the government set out plans for a licensing regime for data centers, Capacity reported. Operators would need permission to establish and run a data center. The criteria would favor facilities serving defense, police and emergency preparedness, health services, mobile networks and financial services, as well as AI computing capacity for Norway, the Nordics and Europe. Cryptocurrency mining would not count as socially beneficial. The government aims to present the main principles in autumn 2027 after a public consultation, and says the regime would cover new and existing data centers with transitional arrangements. It has also signalled that developers should pay more of the grid costs they create, and that it will consider requirements for data centers to develop their own generation, including offshore wind and gas power with carbon capture.

At a press conference, Torgeir Micaelsen, Norway's minister of digitalisation and public governance, said the aim is to get "the data centres we actually need".

Baxtel tracks 113 data center facilities in Norway operated by 47 providers, led by Green Mountain AS with 12 sites and BitDeer with two. The largest is BitDeer's Tydal site at 175 megawatts.

Statnett's technical requirements will go out for consultation and need approval from the energy regulator RME before the suspension can be lifted.

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