Denmark Publishes Emergency Grid Law That Puts Data Centers Last
(Bloomberg) -- Denmark introduced an emergency law to overhaul access to its power grid, including by making most data centers the lowest priority, as the country’s energy minister warned that the current system risks derailing the transition to green energy.
Under the new law, the energy ministry will have the power to set new rules about who gets priority access to the grid, replacing the current first-come, first-serve system. The changes could serve as an example elsewhere in Europe as ambitions to increase electricity demand and renewable power generation are coming up against aging grids unaccustomed to rapid change.
“Our electricity grid is under pressure, and it threatens to bring our green transition and development to a standstill,” Denmark’s Minister of Climate, Energy and Utilities Samira Nawa said in a statement. In late June, the energy ministry said there was broad political support to enact such an emergency plan.
The bill proposes four categories of power consumers. The first covers increased demand from current customers, new households and small businesses. The second is for projects that support electrification and the green transition. Those two categories would have the highest priority for grid access.
The next two categories include one that targets batteries, including those located within existing solar or wind farms, and another that targets very large power customers, such as data centers. These types of consumers will have lower priority, depending on their “grid-friendliness,” a term that refers to how willing the projects are to fluctuate their demand to accommodate grid constraints. Applications from data centers could be refused if there isn’t enough energy capacity.
Denmark’s law follows a similar effort in the UK, where the government ditched a first-come, first-serve system that led to a massive queue. Project developers waited years for grid access. Unlike Denmark, however, the UK sought to prioritize data centers, aiming to capture the potential economic benefits of surging investment in computing power for artificial intelligence.
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