And when people read about some of these things in the press, they often paint data centres as being very energy hungry and very water hungry now we've just been talking about the energy usage there so it's clear that data centers have a big demand for energy um and that you are using energy but could you talk us through how you think we're using it differently and how maybe some of those because one of the challenges we face is that it's not the same here in the uk as it is in other countries so um how are you approaching it

big big topic for discussion um I think the first thing to try and make clear is that what the general public, what the journalists and what politicians are seeing through the National Grid NISOs demand queue for data centre power requirements is by far and away over exaggerated to what the actual genuine demand figure is for the UK's AI requirements.

So to put some context around that, the National Grid today supports around 75 gigawatts of power infrastructure providing electricity to businesses and homes across the nation.

There are now, I believe, around about 80 gigawatts of data centre power requests in its entirety that have been submitted to NISO for data centre power connections.

Many of those are from land owners, owners of property portfolios who are seeking to get involved in the data centre industry to realise greater value for their sites.

And subsequently, what they're doing is they're also applying for data centre planning applications with the local authorities that those land parcels reside within.

Now, what that's doing is it's spooking the nation because we all, and rightly so, everyone believes that AI data centres are going to march across the nation unchecked when the reality is very different, I believe.

and ask for a response or ask to generate an image they're quite technical issues um that it's maybe not something which the everyday person in the street has the time to to look into but have you any ideas of how we could start to get some of those messages across to help people understand um you know the point you're making that data centers really are critical just to everyday life

[laughs]

Yeah.

I, I don't want to get into, be too negative, but the, uh, I mean, the, the first one that was announced in Culham in Oxfordshire, um, South Oxfordshire, nothing has come from that at all.

And it's, it, it seems to be tumbleweed with regard to any announcements on any- anything being achieved there.

There certainly isn't any data centers being constructed there.

There certainly aren't any data centers being constructed there.

Then you have the Blyth in the northeast of the country, uh, development, which is a form of British Vault, um, uh, location.

You know, how, how much of this do you think is policy that they could have actually had an impact on and, and radically brought down prices, and how much of this is just an endemic UK problem?