In this article, originally published in the April 2026 edition of the CPI Antitrust Chronicle*, members of AG’s Competition & Regulation Team explore competition authorities’ recent interest in energy supply and consumption as key parameters of competition, which adds a new dimension to the ongoing competition enforcement and regulatory focus on data centres and related technological services including generative AI.
Power supply is the lifeblood of any data centre. Securing a viable grid connection is both essential and increasingly challenging, particularly in a number of jurisdictions (such as the UK and Ireland) where grid capacity is under severe pressure and connection queues stretch into the 2030s. Against this background, we highlight below a recent development in competition policy, whereby competition authorities are beginning to focus on energy supply and consumption as key parameters of competition and their own specific competition risks. Given the ongoing competition enforcement and regulatory focus on data centres and key services they may support (in particular Generative Artificial Intelligence), we recommend that data centre developers and their investors, as well as energy suppliers, keep a watching brief on this development and provide an overview of latest public activities to assist with this effort.
This article builds on the team’s recent briefings linked below:
*The PDF version of this article and the full April 2026 Volume 1 edition of the CPI Antitrust Chronicle were originally published on the CPI website.
To read more, download your copy here.
