Summary
- Preliminary plans cover more than 328,000 sq m of data-centre buildings with around 960MW of full-load demand.
- Stender is testing different connection volumes and points rather than seeking the entire requirement through one immediate connection.
- Electricity supply and local planning remain the two principal conditions for a possible construction start in 2028.
Danish developer Stender is trying to secure electricity for a proposed data-centre development near Rødby that could require around 960MW at full operation, putting grid access at the centre of whether the campus can proceed at its planned scale.
A preliminary site plan covers just over 328,000 sq m of data-centre buildings. Stender chief executive Allan Egeris Arentsen said the 960MW figure represents the expected requirement of the data centre itself when fully operational.
For comparison, Energinet has put Denmark’s peak electricity demand at roughly 7GW to 7.5GW. A 960MW facility would therefore represent a substantial new load even before the wider electrification of transport, heating, and industry is considered.
Stender is not trying to obtain the full requirement through one immediate connection. The project is intended to develop in phases, and the company has submitted several screening requests covering different electricity volumes and connection points.
The requests involve distribution system operator Cerius and national transmission system operator Energinet. The area contains several substations, giving the developer potential options for structuring the connection around capacity that can actually be delivered.
No power agreement has yet been reached. Stender expects an agreement covering the first phase could be in place around the beginning of 2027, potentially earlier if grid discussions advance quickly.
The electricity process is moving alongside local planning. The developer expects the local development plan to receive final approval in the fourth quarter of 2027. If that timetable holds, construction could start in early 2028.
The scale of the proposal illustrates what changes when data-centre projects move from tens of megawatts into several hundred megawatts. At that point, securing land is only one part of development. Transmission capacity, substations, connection sequencing, network reinforcement, and the wider electricity balance can determine the build-out schedule long before server halls are fitted out.
Phased development offers one way to manage the constraint. A campus can begin with a smaller connection and add capacity as further network infrastructure becomes available, avoiding the need for the entire end-state requirement on the first day of operation.
That approach also creates a dependency. The commercial expansion of later buildings becomes tied to whether grid operators can deliver the additional capacity assumed in the development plan.
There is also an important difference between connection capacity and actual consumption. Large campuses are generally fitted out over time, meaning electrical reservations, installed IT capacity, and real demand can rise at different rates.
For electricity planners, that makes data-centre forecasting difficult. Reserving too little capacity can delay projects and investment, while reserving large blocks for developments that arrive slowly can limit room for other users of the network.
Denmark’s growing renewable generation adds another dimension. Large consumers can absorb substantial wind and solar output, but a facility approaching one gigawatt of demand still requires sufficient network capability and a credible supply position during periods when renewable output is lower.
Cooling, backup power, water, and the physical design of the campus will become significant engineering questions if the proposal advances. Those systems cannot be finalised independently of the power position because the scale of the first connection will influence how much of the campus can initially be built and operated.
The immediate constraint is therefore the most basic one. Stender needs to establish how much power can be delivered, through which connection points, and on what timetable before a 960MW masterplan can become a phased construction programme.
The screening process now under way will determine whether the scale shown on the preliminary plan can be reconciled with the infrastructure available around Rødby.
