Summary
- New data centres could face an annual charge calculated at €15,000 per MW.
- At least 60% of electricity consumption would normally need qualifying new Greek renewable generation.
- Grid connection guarantees, environmental assessment, and project financing requirements would accompany the rules.
Greece has proposed an annual charge of €15,000 per MW for new data centres, alongside requirements linking their electricity consumption to additional domestic renewable generation.
The measures form part of a bill submitted to parliament by the Ministry of Environment and Energy. The legislation would require qualifying facilities to secure renewable electricity arrangements, fund necessary grid infrastructure, and satisfy additional financial and development conditions.
The annual levy would be calculated using a facility’s maximum electricity consumption and become payable when operations begin. A 100MW data centre would therefore face an annual charge of €1.5 million.
Revenue would be allocated to household electricity consumers and municipalities in the areas concerned. Data centres already operating and connected to the electricity grid would be exempt from the proposed new provisions.
Developers would normally need to arrange for at least 60% of annual electricity consumption to be covered by qualifying renewable energy sources within Greece’s interconnected electricity system.
The electricity could not simply be attributed to any existing wind or solar project. Under the proposed rules, the renewable generation must satisfy conditions relating to its development status when the data centre submits its grid connection application.
Qualifying renewable projects must not already have received an operating licence or, where applicable, an electricity connection certificate at that point. They must subsequently obtain a final connection offer when the associated bilateral power purchase agreements are submitted.
The requirement connects the development of new computing facilities with additional generating capacity. It also introduces dependencies between the construction schedules of data centres, renewable projects, and the electricity networks serving them.
If the required renewable generation and associated energy storage arrangements are not operational when a data centre is connected, the legislation provides for suspension of its electricity supply.
The bill permits the 60% requirement to be reduced by ministerial decision in certain cases, including arrangements involving renewable technologies other than photovoltaics or combinations of generation and storage.
The final treatment of different procurement structures will depend on the provisions adopted by parliament and the subsequent implementation of the legislation.
New grid connection applicants would also need to provide a bank guarantee of €200,000 per MW. For a 100MW development, that represents €20 million of financial security.
The guarantee is not equivalent to a non-refundable fee, but arranging it can affect a developer’s banking facilities and financing capacity. Investors would separately bear the costs of network connections and reinforcements attributable to their projects.
Applicants would generally need to submit an environmental impact assessment file, preliminary building permission approval, and evidence of their right to use the proposed development site.
For projects connecting to the transmission system, an additional financial eligibility test would link annual turnover to deemed construction costs. The reference construction cost is €10 million per MW, with the required turnover exceeding 30% of that figure.
These requirements would bring commercial capability and planning progress into the electricity connection process. Developers would need to demonstrate more than an intended facility size before securing network access.
Projects exceeding 200MW could receive priority consideration where accompanied by new dispatchable electricity generation or storage with rated capacity equal to at least 80% of the data centre’s maximum consumption.
This provision would create an incentive for very large developments to invest in additional energy infrastructure rather than relying entirely on existing network capacity.
The bill also adjusts transitional arrangements. Developers already holding connection offers would receive 12 months rather than five to comply, while the acceptance period for new connection offers would increase from two months to three.
Distribution network operators could also issue staged connection offers for qualifying developments of up to 40MW, subject to the conditions of the proposed framework.
DataCentral previously reported Greece’s proposed connection guarantees. The parliamentary bill adds the annual levy and more detailed rules concerning the origin and development status of renewable electricity supplies.
The new provisions would affect recurring operating costs, upfront financial commitments, project sequencing, and the relationship between data centre investment and electricity generation.
They remain proposals until enacted. The final legislation will determine how Greece allocates network capacity to new computing facilities while addressing the additional costs and infrastructure associated with large electricity consumers.
