Summary
- Terna chief executive Pasqualino Monti discussed more than 100GW of connection requests associated with almost 600 initiatives on 14 October.
- He distinguished the application queue from projects likely to be constructed, comparing the pattern with renewable energy requests.
- Terna says its existing scenarios consider expected data centre demand and it currently sees no systemic grid-capacity crisis from that growth.
Terna intends to match Italian transmission infrastructure development to the maturity of proposed data centre projects, rather than treating the country’s enormous queue of electricity connection requests as a schedule of future operating demand.
Chief executive Pasqualino Monti discussed the issue at an RCS Academy event on 14 October, describing more than 100GW of requested connection capacity associated with almost 600 data centre initiatives. The headline figures have circulated previously; his newer assessment concerned how the transmission operator interprets that demand and plans investment against the probability that individual schemes will proceed.
Monti drew a comparison with renewable electricity projects, where applications for grid access have historically exceeded the capacity that developers could realistically finance and build. The same separation is necessary for data centres. A request reserves a place in an administrative process; it does not establish that land is consented, a connection agreement executed, construction funded or customers contracted.
Italy’s recent AI for Energy research provides a useful illustration of the gap. Politecnico di Milano reported 609MW of installed data centre IT capacity at the end of 2025 and scenarios ranging from approximately 0.9GW to 1.8GW by 2030. Those figures describe installed computing demand and possible future growth, whereas Terna’s much larger queue concerns requested electrical connection capacity. Their units may both be megawatts, but their accounting boundaries and project maturity differ.
Connection applications are not load forecasts
Electrical planning cannot simply disregard speculative requests. A grid operator must know where large new demands could appear, how several proposals might interact and when reinforcements may be needed. Building all requested capacity immediately, however, would risk committing network investment to projects that never emerge from development.
The technical programme for a major data centre can involve a transmission connection, dedicated substations, transformer capacity, protection systems and work on neighbouring network assets. Equipment manufacture and permissions may take years. Sequencing therefore matters: construction may need to begin before a tenant occupies the campus, but it still needs evidence that project milestones are credible.
Monti said Terna’s scenarios already include expected increases in data centre electricity use and that the operator currently does not see a problem with the network’s ability to support that development. That is Terna’s assessment of the growth it considers likely, not a guarantee that any individual proposed campus can obtain its requested power on its preferred date.
He advocated flexible and modular solutions, allowing network infrastructure to expand as credible projects mature. Modular delivery could separate the first energised phase from later build-out, although the precise engineering sequence depends on a site’s location and the network reinforcement scheme.
Investment follows the difference between proposals and commitments
Milan and its surrounding municipalities remain a focus for new data centre development because of their connectivity, industrial land and established commercial demand. This concentration creates local planning and network questions even if the national aggregate connection queue substantially overstates the computing capacity that will eventually be delivered.
Terna’s position should also be distinguished from regional land-use regulation. Lombardy is considering tighter conditions on agricultural land, water management and renewable energy arrangements. A developer could satisfy local site requirements while still waiting for an appropriate electrical connection, or hold a connection request while lacking a viable planning route.
Where a developer plans a campus in multiple stages, the first phase may need far less power than the total long-term connection request. Network investment can be sequenced against those stages provided protection, equipment design and future expansion routes are addressed from the outset. A nominal connection request cannot disclose the phasing arrangement by itself, and no Italian data centre should be assumed to have accepted a particular modular solution solely because Terna supports that principle.
More mature projects generally provide stronger signals through permitting progress, land control, financing, technical designs and contracts. Monti did not announce a new numerical eligibility test or a published schedule for cancelling unviable requests at the event. Reporting such a mechanism without an official decision would overstate the comments.
The 14 October statement adds the operator’s direct view of project maturity to Italy’s more than 100GW queue. Terna regards the requests as evidence of substantial market interest while planning for a considerably smaller and more gradual build-out. Future network commitments will need to reflect which proposed facilities cross the successive thresholds from application to construction and operation.
