Norway has halted reservations for new data centre connections to its national electricity grid while the government prepares a licensing scheme to control the sector's growth, putting access to power at the centre of decisions about which computing facilities the country will allow to develop.
The government announced its plans on Nov. 9, and national grid operator Statnett immediately stopped accepting reservations for new data centre connections. The pause is expected to last until Aug. 1, 2027 at the latest, once Statnett has set new technical requirements and the energy regulator has approved them.
Energy Minister Terje Aasland said Statnett had received applications for 26,000 megawatts of new capacity this year — more than Norway's peak demand of just over 25 gigawatts — with data centres accounting for 75% of requests. Statnett reports 800 megawatts of data centre load already connected, 4,200 megawatts with reserved capacity, 9,100 megawatts in the connection queue and inquiries for another 18,000 megawatts.
Digitalisation Minister Torgeir Micaelsen said the aim was to gain control over growth and ensure the country gets the data centres it actually needs. The planned priorities include police, emergency preparedness, health services and critical infrastructure, including mobile networks and the financial system. The licensing scheme should be ready in autumn 2027 and will apply to existing data centres as well as new ones.
Cryptocurrency mining will not qualify for priority capacity under the scheme, the government said.
The pause covers new reservations and new applications for technical approval, including some pending applications for direct connections to the 420-kilovolt grid. It is not a general ban on building data centres: existing connections are unaffected, and facilities that already have approved technical requirements can still connect.
New data centres will be expected to pay for grid costs. They may also be required to build their own gas-fired electricity generation with carbon capture — a potential condition, not an obligation confirmed for every project.
Norway joins a growing group of countries rationing grid access for artificial intelligence data centres as governments weigh computing demand against other electricity needs. The decision could influence where European computing capacity is built.
