Norway's Statnett pauses new grid reservations for data centres

Norway's grid operator Statnett said on Monday it was temporarily suspending further reservations of network capacity for data centres, to ensure proper operation of the power system.

Why it matters: Norway joins a growing list of power systems where data centre demand is outrunning the grid, and a pause on capacity reservations puts new projects' timelines in doubt even before permitting.

Data as of Reuters reports of November 9 and October 29, 2026, read in full via syndication; the item first surfaced as a Bloomberg headline in the feed queue. Statnett's own statement was not read directly in this run; Statnett is logged in SOURCES-TO-IMPLEMENT.md on 2026-11-09. Developing item.

Norway’s power grid operator Statnett said on Monday it was temporarily suspending further reservations of network capacity for data centres, to ensure proper operation of the power system, Reuters reported. The pause applies to new capacity reservations, and Statnett gave no end date in the report.

The move follows regulator figures showing data centres already account for between 3 and 4 terawatt hours of Norwegian demand, about 2.5 percent of the total, and could consume 25 terawatt hours by 2035 on grid connections already approved, against a typical national power surplus of about 15 terawatt hours. Politicians from several parties have been pressing for a halt to new data centre projects, and the Labour government has said it is working on measures to steer which projects get built.

Norway's Statnett pauses new grid reservations for data centres

Sources