As power shortages threaten the UK’s tech boom, how can bridging solutions help?

With the electricity grid at full capacity in West London and unable to connect any new projects, energy solutions provider, Aggreko, has highlighted how bridging solutions can help ensure the delivery of new data centres despite on-going power-related challenges.

London’s data centre market is the largest in Europe and the third largest in the wider world. However, with grid strain at maximum in the West London area, and the National Grid still awaiting planning permission for a new substation, 14 new data centre projects are on hold and face a wait of several years to connect.

With these delays threatening the tech boom, Billy Durie, Global Sector Head of Data Centres, has advocated for the role that bridging solutions can play in overcoming energy shortages or grid delays.

“In the short period since coming to power, the new government has put out a clear statement of intent regarding the importance of the data centre sector. The relaxation of planning rules, alongside the recent categorisation of data centres as critical national infrastructure, has geared the nation up for major investment that may well trigger an industry boom.

“However, it is vital that energy solutions companies like ourselves support our customers hampered by these types of challenges around grid capacity shortages. For this reason, we are encouraging project managers to take power provision into their own hands via the means of bridging solutions.”

The topic of grid shortages forms the focus of Aggreko’s latest whitepaper, Bridging the Energy Gap for European Data Centres, which discusses the energy challenges facing the sector in depth, before highlighting the decentralised energy solutions that project managers can use to bridge the energy gap.

Within the report, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and stage-V generators are both presented as means through which energy challenges can be addressed while maintaining adherence to environmental targets. Investment in both of these technologies forms a key pillar of Aggreko’s sustainability framework, Energising Change.

The whitepaper also cites a number of case studies of bridging solutions being used in practice, including a new data centre in Dublin that had no access to a grid connection.

Here, Aggreko supplied 24 1MW stage-V generators, delivering 20MVA of power on a 12-month contract. Alongside allowing the project to go ahead without delay, this also offered savings of 2,107 tonnes of carbon, 786,240 litres of fuel and over £1 million in savings throughout the project.

“Bridging solutions allow data centres to access the power they need without delay, in turn ensuring that project timescales are not affected. On a wider scale, this will allow the sector to thrive across the UK and reap the full benefits of the new opportunities that are now available to it,” added Durie.