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The AI Energy Council was set up in January, with its first meeting taking place in April as part of the government’s response to the AI Opportunities Action Plan.

Its initial focus is to align the UK’s clean energy initiatives with AI and computing infrastructure. AI minister Kanishka Narayan and energy ministers Lord Vallance and Michael Shanks co-chaired the council’s latest meeting on 1 December, which was attended by regulators and representatives from the energy and tech sectors.

Talks centred on speeding up grid connections and building the infrastructure needed to power new AI infrastructure and AI Growth Zones across the UK. Measures are likely to include steps to reduce potential pressures on the energy network by supporting data centres based in AI Growth Zones, with discounts on their electricity bills in instances where they will be able to harness excess capacity.

Proposals for AI Growth Zones are likely to be considered on the basis of access to energy.

The AI Minister stated that AI has become a key driver of the government’s missions on growth and prosperity, noting the recent announcements of new AI Growth Zones for North East England, and North and South Wales. Discussions also covered the recently announced package of reforms to support the delivery of AI Growth Zones, particularly highlighting how AI Growth Zone infrastructure projects will benefit from plans to accelerate grid access.

The discussions focused on how the UK can be more ambitious in harnessing the opportunities of AI – understanding the energy capacity needed to meet demand, unlocking access to that capacity on the energy grid, and exploring innovative solutions to power AI infrastructure, including self-build options.

The government recently announced – on 20 November – “thousands of new jobs and billions of pounds of investment in AI” as drivers of growth across the UK with earmarked locations for AI Growth Zones including in Wales, Bristol and London. A planned AI Growth Zone in South Wales will create more than 5,000 new jobs for local communities over the next decade, including at former Ford Bridgend Engine Plant.

Corporations like Vantage Data Centers and Microsoft are also joining forces with the government to deliver another AI Growth Zone. Set in South Wales, £10 billion of investment will unlock at least 5,000 jobs, including in industrial heartlands like the former Ford Bridgend Engine Plant.

The government said the plans will ensure new investment boosts jobs and growth – giving British businesses the opportunity to scale and compete internationally as part of the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy. International companies are also hosting new centres in the UK and British companies are increasing investment – with £24.25bn in private investment committed in recent weeks.

The AI Energy Council will next meet in early 2026, with discussions expected to build on work to understand AI’s energy capacity and demand including how to unlock sustainable and innovative solutions to power future AI infrastructure, including within AI Growth Zones.

Accelerating AI

The government’s reform package includes updating national policy guidance to give strong support to AI data centres; investing in additional specialist AI data centre planning capacity, protecting land and unblock planning decisions for AI Growth Zones through central government intervention.

Meanwhile the government also confirmed last month that it is prioritising AI Growth Zones by reserving and reallocating grid capacity.

“Getting enough power to AI Growth Zones is critical, but the current grid connection system is vastly oversubscribed and does not reflect national demand priorities. To fix this, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) will set out a plan to manage speculative data centre demand, ensuring only the most strategic and credible projects are taken forward. We will introduce new mechanisms to reallocate the released capacity, and reserve future capacity, for AI Growth Zones, amongst other strategically important projects. This means strategic demand projects and AI Growth Zones will be prioritised for available capacity on the energy network.”

The government is also creating two new connection mechanisms:

• • a reallocation mechanism that gives priority access to freed-up capacity when another project exits the queue, including through efforts to remove speculative projects
  • a reservation mechanism that allows capacity to be held at a specific physical connection point for a strategically important project such as an AI Growth Zone

Additionally, the government is applying new powers in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to help prioritise projects identified by government as strategically important, such as AI Growth Zones, for grid connections. And it is setting out a strategic plan to remove speculative demand projects in the connections queue.

Another plank of the government’s plan is to work with Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator (Neso) to update the technical codes and licences that govern how connections are managed, so these changes can be implemented quickly and fairly.

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