Energy
Spain's government estimates that data centres will increase electricity bill by 200 per cent
The report warns that the rapid "boom" in these facilities, coupled with the intermittent nature of renewables, will cause the operating hours of combined-cycle power stations to surge by 107 per cent
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The "disproportionate" increase in data centres in Spain threatens to drive up electricity bills and trigger a price crisis in the national electricity market.
If ... the government does not impose strict controls on these computing infrastructures, the massive influx of new facilities will lead to a critical situation by 2030, when the total variable cost of electricity generation is forecast to triple, with a 107 per cent increase in the operating hours of combined-cycle gas-fired power stations and a 65 per cent rise in carbon dioxide emissions.
These staggering figures appear in the regulatory impact assessment report for the draft royal decree through which the government aims to regulate the integration of these infrastructures into the system. The advisory body analysing the report is expected to issue its opinion on Thursday as a preliminary step before the regulation is submitted to the Cabinet.
The technical report, drawn up jointly by the Ministries of Ecological Transition, Economy and Digital Transformation, has quantified the impact of a deregulated scenario in which ten gigawatts (GW) of computing power is connected, compared with the regulated baseline scenario of one GW. "These are costs which, were the proposed regulation not to be implemented, would be borne in full by all consumers," the text warns.
The small print of the decree, which came to light last week, has sparked an all-out war between the government and the sector's employers' organisation . While the government defends the new text, arguing that it introduces elements of flexibility into the adaptation timetables to give the sector some breathing space, large companies and operators interpret it as a legal trap, as they believe that any temporary extension is granted only if they accept, in return, potential operational restrictions or cuts to the energy supply.
This has led employers' organisation Spain DC to formally request a hearing before the Consejo de Estado to present its arguments before the mandatory ruling. The sector has strongly criticised the haste with which the ministry is processing such a far-reaching regulation, accusing the government of pushing the institutional machinery to have the regulation definitively approved by Cabinet before the upcoming general election on 29 November.
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