Nscale’s £2 Billion UK AI Data Center Reportedly Faces Grid Delay

Nscale’s planned £2 billion ($2.7 billion) AI data center in Essex is facing a delay after it was told that its grid connection would not be available in time for the facility’s targeted 2027 opening, The Telegraph reported Monday.

The Nvidia-backed company is exploring alternative power arrangements for the Loughton site and has held discussions with Bloom Energy, a California-based supplier of solid oxide fuel cells that can generate electricity using natural gas, according to the report.

Nscale has secured planning permission for the project and expects to obtain a 90-megawatt electricity supply, but the connection is not expected to be ready next year, The Telegraph said.

The company remains fully committed to the Essex development, an Nscale spokesman told the newspaper. Bloom Energy declined to comment.

The reported setback highlights the widening gap between Britain’s ambitions to become a major center for AI infrastructure and the ability of its electricity network to accommodate the large, continuous loads required by advanced computing facilities.

Nscale and Microsoft announced the Loughton project in September 2025 as part of a broader package of technology investments unveiled during US President Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain. The facility was expected to initially provide 50 MW of AI computing capacity, scalable to 90 MW, and house 23,040 Nvidia GB300 graphics processing units delivered in the first quarter of 2027. Microsoft is the project’s anchor customer and plans to use the capacity to support its Azure cloud services in the UK.

The project had previously been expected to begin operations in 2026 before its timeline was moved to 2027, according to The Telegraph. Further delays could expose Nscale to financial penalties if it has committed to make computing capacity available to customers by specified dates, the newspaper said.

Nscale’s discussions with Bloom reflect a broader shift among data center developers toward behind-the-meter generation as grid connection queues lengthen. Bloom’s fuel cells generate electricity through an electrochemical process rather than conventional combustion. The systems can be installed directly at data center campuses, allowing operators to add power more quickly than through major transmission upgrades, though their use of natural gas could complicate corporate and government emissions targets.

Britain is attempting to reform its electricity connection process as competition intensifies among data centers, renewable-energy projects and other large industrial users. The government has proposed prioritizing strategically important electricity demand, including data centers, while removing speculative projects that occupy space in the connection queue.

The government has also expanded the option for qualifying data center developments to be treated as nationally significant infrastructure projects, potentially allowing them to bypass parts of the local planning process. Faster planning approvals, however, do not guarantee that sufficient generation and transmission capacity will be available when construction is completed.

The Essex delay comes as Nscale is raising substantial amounts of capital to fund an international expansion. The company last week closed a $900 million revolving credit facility syndicated by banks including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. Nscale said the facility would provide flexible liquidity for data center development across the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

Nscale earlier raised $2 billion at a valuation of about $14.6 billion and secured financing for projects including a large AI campus in Narvik, Norway, according to The Wall Street Journal.