France plans faster grid hookups to lure data centre investment

France is moving to fast-track power connections for large data centres, betting that a quicker hookup process could help the country win a larger share of Europe’s AI and cloud investment before projects drift elsewhere. The energy ministry said in Paris on April 23 that it was considering letting major data-centre developments temporarily connect to underground cable systems while broader reforms to the grid-connection process are worked out.

The proposal targets one of the biggest bottlenecks in Europe’s digital race: electricity queues that can leave projects waiting for years, and in some countries as long as a decade. Those delays have created a market distortion of their own, with so-called ghost projects reserving scarce grid slots without ever being built. That can crowd out better-financed contenders and keep the first-come, first-served system tilted toward speculation instead of actual construction.

A ministry official said the temporary connection option could be available by the end of the month and would help several very large projects meet tight time-to-market deadlines. The same official framed the move as part of France’s push for digital sovereignty and decarbonization, arguing that more data centres built at home would keep more of the computing stack inside France while supporting a cleaner economy.

The plan also fits into a broader policy drive launched under Emmanuel Macron’s AI strategy on February 11, 2025, which promoted France’s decarbonized, abundant and stable electricity supply, its expanding high-voltage grid, suitable sites and streamlined procedures as advantages for hosting AI infrastructure. France has already started codifying the sector more directly: Article L236-1 of the French Energy Code defines data centres in law, and RTE introduced a fast-track procedure for high-power consumption installations on suitable sites, effective May 9, 2025.

The stakes are rising quickly. Industry estimates in 2025 put France’s existing data-centre base at more than 250 facilities, while other legal and industry sources put the figure at about 325 facilities and 5,000 server rooms, concentrated mainly in Île-de-France and Marseille. Aurora Energy Research has projected that French data-centre electricity demand could rise 74% by 2050.

That prospect has already drawn enormous investment commitments. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and its Data4 business announced a €20 billion plan in February 2025 to build more than 1 GW of additional data-centre capacity in France. In May 2025, MGX, Bpifrance, Mistral AI and NVIDIA announced an AI campus in the Paris region expected to reach 1.4 GW. France’s temporary fix is meant to arrive quickly enough to influence decisions like those, as Europe decides whether the next wave of AI infrastructure will be built on its grid or on somebody else’s.