Brussels, Feb 3, 2026, 14:10 CET
- Amazon Web Services says long waits for grid connections are complicating new European data center projects
- An AWS executive said connecting to Europe’s transmission grid can take up to seven years
- The EU is negotiating proposals aimed at speeding permits and upgrades for ageing power networks
Amazon.com’s cloud unit is running into years-long delays to secure power grid connections in Europe, complicating plans to expand data centers, the company told Reuters on Tuesday.
Reuters
The bottleneck is landing at an awkward moment. Energy-hungry industries are pushing the European Union to spend more on grids, warning that access to stable power can decide where new plants and infrastructure get built.
For Amazon Web Services (AWS), the grid hookup has started to compete with real estate and construction as the pacing item. Pamela MacDougall, AWS head of energy markets and regulation in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), said it has become one of the biggest deciding factors in data center investments.
Connecting a site to the transmission network — the high-voltage grid — can take up to seven years in Europe, versus roughly two years to develop a data center, MacDougall said. In the United States, connection queues average one to three years, according to the International Energy Agency, though they can sometimes stretch to seven.
“And we’re finding more and more across Europe that certainty of the delivery date has continued to be delayed,” MacDougall said.
The European Commission proposed legal changes last year to cap deadlines for authorities to approve grid permits at a maximum of two years and to exempt some grid projects from environmental assessments, a formal review of environmental impacts. EU countries and lawmakers are still negotiating those proposals.
MacDougall said “in many countries” Amazon had wanted to build infrastructure but missing grid connections or power network congestion made the project unfeasible. “There’s a misalignment. We want to expand and grow within two years,” she said, adding the delays were “challenging our growth aspirations”.
Italy and Spain are among the countries where grid connections are slowed by a backlog of “speculative” projects — applications filed as a precaution that will likely not go ahead — the electricity industry association Eurelectric has said. First-come, first-served rules mean other projects cannot overtake them in the queue.
Investing
MacDougall is vice-chair of GIGA, an industry association launched last month to push policymakers to modernise Europe’s power grids. Other members include tech firms Meta and Google, along with electric vehicle charging infrastructure company Fastned.
Marketscreener
Amazon is building data centers across Europe as it expands AWS, the world’s largest cloud provider, which sells computing power, data storage and other digital services. The company does not disclose exactly how many data centers it has in Europe, but it has infrastructure in more than 20 European countries and is expanding investments in France, Germany and Spain.
But faster rules do not automatically mean faster wires. The EU proposals are still under negotiation, and grid operators also face the practical problem of clearing clogged connection queues and winning permits to upgrade networks, which can slip. That leaves developers dealing with uncertain delivery dates — and projects that can stop pencilling out.
Companies are now making the point bluntly: without firm timelines for grid upgrades, some investment decisions get delayed or move elsewhere. Europe’s grid debate, once a technical backwater, is turning into an industrial policy fight.
