Summary
- Terna is dealing with 531 data-centre connection applications totalling 95.38GW.
- Lombardy accounts for around 46GW of requested capacity, much of it concentrated around Milan.
- Only 15 applications totalling 1.88GW have reached the most advanced stage of the connection process.
Requests to connect new data centres to Italy’s high-voltage grid have reached 95.38GW, according to figures from Terna, underscoring how speculative demand is beginning to affect transmission planning well before most projects reach construction.
The total covers 531 applications. Lombardy accounts for roughly 46GW across 290 requests, with the greatest concentration around Milan, while Lazio, Piedmont, and Puglia are among the other regions attracting significant interest.
The queue has expanded at extraordinary speed. Requested data-centre capacity stood at around 1GW in 2021, increased to 5.4GW in 2023 and 31.28GW in 2024, and has continued rising through 2026. Around 300 requests representing 58.7GW have reportedly been submitted since the start of this year alone.
Those figures should not be mistaken for 95GW of data centres that will be built. Only 15 applications, representing 1.88GW, have reached the most advanced stage of the connection process. The gap between the headline queue and mature projects is therefore the central infrastructure issue.
Connection applications can be submitted comparatively early in a development process, while the network operator cannot simply reject projects because their commercial prospects appear uncertain. Developers also have incentives to establish a grid position before land, finance, customers, and final permits are completely resolved because electricity availability can determine whether those other elements retain value.
The result is a queue that mixes serious projects with earlier-stage or potentially duplicative demand. From the transmission operator’s perspective, however, even immature requests can influence modelling for substations, transmission lines, reinforcement, and long-term generation and demand scenarios.
Terna had already highlighted the acceleration in data-centre requests in its network-development planning. At the end of 2024, the total stood at roughly 30GW, while by the end of January 2026 Terna was referring to almost 80GW. The latest 95.38GW figure shows that the pipeline is still expanding faster than physical facilities can reach the grid.
The numbers are particularly striking in Lombardy. DataCentral has reported repeatedly on the region’s attempt to bring data-centre electricity, land, water, and heat reuse into a more structured planning framework as the Milan market expands. A 46GW connection queue is far larger than the capacity likely to become operational in the foreseeable future, but it still creates a planning problem because Terna must distinguish credible future load from applications that may never progress.
Italy currently has a much smaller operating data-centre load than the queue suggests. The latest reporting identifies 226 facilities with an aggregate capacity of about 513MW when smaller distribution-connected and industrial sites are included. Only a small number are recognised as major individual consumption units on Terna’s system.
The contrast is a warning against treating grid-queue statistics as market forecasts. A connection request establishes demand for network access; it does not establish financing, planning consent, customer contracts, construction capability, or an energisation date.
For Terna, the operational challenge is nevertheless real. If only a modest proportion of 95GW becomes firm, new substations, transmission capacity, and local reinforcements will still be required. The next useful measure of the Italian market will therefore be how quickly projects migrate from the expanding headline queue into the much smaller pool of technically and commercially mature connections.
