Data Centres and the Grid

​Digital and energy systems are converging into the new frontier for Europe’s competitiveness. Data centres lie at the heart of this intersection: once seen as passive enablers of digitalisation, they are now becoming strategic assets and sources of stress for Europe’s energy system. Their role extends far beyond rising electricity demand, touching on questions of sovereignty, innovation, resilience, and sustainability.

​Against this backdrop, CERRE will host the event “Data Centres and the Grid” on 30 September 2025, from 16:00 to 18:00 CET at the Cercle Royal Gaulois in Brussels.

​How can Europe turn this challenge into an opportunity, transforming data centres from potential bottlenecks into assets for digital sovereignty, energy resilience, and competitiveness? This is the question at the heart of CERRE’s new report, co-authored by Dr Oliver Inderwildi (University of Cambridge) and Dr Thomas Le Goff (Telecom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris). The report sets out concrete policy recommendations and draws learnings from case studies on France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and the US.

​To debate the report’s findings and their implications for policy and practice, a fishbowl discussion from 16:30 to 18:00 CET will bring together representatives from the European Commission (DG ENER), E.ON, Equinix, Gira Strategic Finance, NVIDIA, PPC, TenneT, and Terna. The discussion will be facilitated by CERRE’s Director of the Energy, Mobility and Sustainability Practice, Annika Brack.

​This will be a hybrid event, with in-person attendance by invitation only.