Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage investment in artificial intelligence technologies by ensuring that there is sufficient infrastructure to support the power grid.

The Government has invited expressions of interest from local authorities and other interested parties to identify locations for AI growth zones that can facilitate the rapid development of projects.

Additionally, the Government is collaborating with Ofgem and NESO to implement major reforms in the grid connections process. This initiative could unlock up to 500GW of capacity from the connection queue, thereby speeding up connections for AI data centres.

Furthermore, the Government is establishing the AI Energy Council, which will bring together senior representatives from both the energy and AI industries to determine optimal locations for AI data centres and proactively manage their energy needs.