January 24, 2026

Top news (3)

• US policy push to stop cost-shifting from data centres to households. A new federal proposal would require data centres to bring on-site power and pay for local transmission upgrades, rather than passing costs to ratepayers (Senator introduces bill to shift data centre energy costs).
• High-density, waterless AI campus expansion in the US. Edged US is adding 72 MW in Chicago/Aurora (planned Q2 2027) and 24 MW in Irving (ground Q2 2026) using waterless closed-loop cooling, targeting ~1.15 PUE and up to 400 kW/rack (Edged US expands waterless, high-density AI data center campuses).
• India grid build-out milestone with direct relevance to load growth. India’s transmission network surpassed 5,00,000 circuit km (220 kV+) with 1,407 GVA transformation capacity; a new 765 kV line added 1,100 MW evacuation capacity, with more additions planned (India’s transmission network surpasses 5 lakh circuit kilometres).

Key deals and projects

United States

• Edged US (Illinois & Texas):
  • Chicago/Aurora campus: announced a 72 MW second building, planned Q2 2027.
  • Irving:24 MW second building approved Jan 15, 2026; expected to break ground Q2 2026.
  • Technical approach: ThermalWorks waterless, closed-loop cooling, supporting up to 400 kW rack densities; portfolio design PUE ~1.15.
  • Delivery model: “campus-first, repeatable,” with partners including PowerSecure (Southern Company) and parent Endeavour (Edged US expands waterless, high-density AI data center campuses).

India

• Uttar Pradesh investment commitments (WEF 2026):
  • ₹37,000 crore total commitments, including a ₹25,000 crore MoU with Essar Group to invest in power, logistics, and data centres.
  • Other commitments included REC Ltd ₹8,000 crore for 500 MW waste-to-energy and additional industrial/clean energy MoUs (Uttar Pradesh secures ₹37,000 crore investments at WEF 2026).

Netherlands

• Industrial edge AI funding (adjacent capacity driver):
  • Helin raised €10 million growth investment led by FORWARD.one (plus a loan from Rabobank) to expand international sales and accelerate enterprise rollouts; reported signed ARR up twelve-fold over three years (Helin secures €10 million to scale industrial edge AI).

Power, grid and interconnection highlights

United States

• Rising concern over retail rate impacts from large load additions (Michigan):
  • DTE Energy held a public listening session on its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP due end of 2026). Discussion focused on affordability and outages tied to expected data centre load growth; analysts cited in the piece warned that each 1 GW data centre could raise residential rates 5%–10% (DTE holds Detroit listening session on IRP, data centers).
• On-site power momentum (US market signal):
  • A Bloom Energy report (survey of 152 decision-makers) found one-third of hyperscalers and colocation providers plan to move power production entirely onsite by 2030, with onsite power demand up 22% vs six months earlier. The report also projected Texas could capture nearly 30% of the US data centre market by 2028, and Georgia’s share to grow 75% (One-third of data centers plan onsite power by 2030).
• PPAs as a response to constrained grid access (but not a cure-all):
  • Commentary flagged PPAs as a tool to help secure priority supply and potentially speed hookups as capacity tightens, but noted constraints including regulatory intervention, physical generation limits, and forecasting risk—implying behind-the-meter generation is likely to remain a primary strategy (PPAs help data centres navigate constrained grid power availability).

India

• Transmission capacity expansion for future load:
  • National network exceeded 5,00,000 circuit km and 1,407 GVA (220 kV+), with ongoing projects expected to add ~67,500 ckm and 533 GVA; recent commissioning included a 628 ckm 765 kV line adding 1,100 MW evacuation capacity (India’s transmission network surpasses 5 lakh circuit kilometres).

Policy and regulation

United States (federal)

• Power for the People Act (proposed):
  • Sen. Chris Van Hollen introduced legislation to require data centres to supply on-site power and fund local transmission upgrades, rather than shifting costs to ratepayers.
  • Supporting context cited: a Union of Concerned Scientists study found $4.3 billion in transmission-related costs were passed to consumers in 2024 across 13 states, and utilities expect 30%–80% growth in electricity sales over the next decade (Senator introduces bill to shift data centre energy costs).

United States (state)

• Colorado: incentives vs operating requirements split within Democrats:
  • House Bill 1030: proposes a 20-year sales and use tax exemption for data centres tied to $250 million in infrastructure investment and other conditions.
  • Competing proposal (Sen. Cathy Kipp): would require data centres to match annual energy use with renewables, pay for grid upgrades, and report water and electricity use (Democrats clash over Colorado data center tax and offsets).

United Kingdom

• Cyber regulation expands coverage to data centres and suppliers:
  • The UK’s Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill (introduced late 2025; expected to progress through 2026) expands regulatory obligations to managed service providers, data centres and critical suppliers.
  • Industry view in the piece stresses continuous testing (including autonomous pentesting) amid rising state-backed/criminal threats and AI-enabled attacks (UK cyber bill drives shift to offensive security testing).

Canada

• Push to classify data centres as Critical National Infrastructure:
  • Equinix urged Canada to designate data centres as Critical National Infrastructure and called for coordinated permitting and grid planning, including a national large step-load protocol.
  • Context cited: Canada’s ~84% non-emitting electricity mix and an example of Equinix TR5 exporting waste heat in Markham (Canada must treat data centres as core infrastructure).

Technology and market notes (relevant read-through)

• Storage mix: performance shifts to NVMe, cold storage still SATA-heavy. Analysts said NVMe (PCIe) is overtaking SATA for performance storage; SATA III ~550 MB/s vs PCIe 5.0 NVMe up to 16 GB/s. Seagate and Western Digital still ship 20–30 TB SATA drives used for cloud cold storage (SATA fading in performance storage but persists for cold).
• Networking architecture growth forecast: Dell’Oro lifted its distributed cloud networking forecast to $21bn by 2029 (implying ~30% CAGR), describing DCN as unifying connectivity, security, and telemetry across edge/WAN/cloud layers (Distributed cloud networking market to reach $21 billion by 2029).

Two-line close

The direction of travel is clearer: large-load growth is increasingly being tied to explicit cost-allocation, reporting, and resilience obligations. Delivery models that reduce water use and accelerate power availability are becoming central differentiators for new capacity.