REA launches The Data Centre Coalition
The Coalition is designed to unlock clean, scalable power for UK data centres and shape the policy environment around this rapidly expanding sector – one that has already attracted over £10 billion of investment in London alone.
The Launch Event
The Coalition launch arrives at a critical time, with the UK government positioning AI and data centres at the heart of national economic growth. Discussions focused on unlocking scalable clean energy for data centres and AI infrastructure, with expert panels examining low-carbon capacity delivery, policy and pricing reform. Speakers highlighted that long grid queues, slow planning, and concern around environmental impacts risk slowing delivery. Scalable, bankable models for clean power procurement remain lacking – and this is where REA’s Data Centre Coalition comes in.
Introducing the Data Centre Coalition
The REA’s new Data Centre Coalition will give industry a unified voice and drive action. It will develop investable clean-power models, design an integrated national framework for planning, create policy certainty, and provide evidence-based input to government and regulators to enable clean, competitive growth in the UK’s digital infrastructure sector.
Speaking at the launch event, REA Chief Executive Trevor Hutchings stated:
“On behalf of our 400 members, we felt it was essential to step forward at this pivotal moment. The UK is in a global race to secure data centre investment, and to meet the sector’s rapidly growing energy demand alongside addressing wider sustainability challenges. Our Data Centre Coalition provides the collective strength to engage directly at the highest levels of government. It ensures that decisions are informed by the full expertise and evidence from the organisations delivering the infrastructure on which the UK’s digital and economic ambitions depend.”
Following Hutchings’ remarks, Liam King, head of demand connections at Ofgem delivered the keynote address, who set out the scale of the challenge ahead: a fast-growing connections queue, increasing pressure on system planning, and the need to prioritise projects that deliver strategic value to the UK. Both panels picked up this theme, exploring how the sector can work with government and system operators to improve flexibility, strengthen the evidence base, navigate planning and locational constraints, and address the public perceptions and myths that increasingly surround data centres. Across the conversations, one thread was consistent: the sector wants to be part of the solution, and there is a real opportunity to demonstrate how data centres can actively support the UK’s clean energy transition.
Over the coming months the Coalition will begin shaping a series of workstreams reflecting what we heard in the room: targeted policy and regulatory asks, reframing the public narrative, and the first steps towards a more strategic, flexible approach to powering digital infrastructure. We will also bring members together to explore the call for evidence from NESO on the demand queue. This is the start of a sustained, practical programme of work, and we look forward to involving many of you as it develops.
About the REA Data Centre Coalition
To give industry a unified voice and to shape the policy, regulatory and commercial frameworks ahead, the REA is launching a two-year Data Centre Coalition: Powering Data Centre Growth.
Founding members: enfinium, Greenscale, Apatura, Clarke Energy
Why Join?
Founding partners will:
Influence national policy at the point decisions are being made
Access early dialogue with ministers, regulators and investors
Gain visibility through high-profile events and publications
Help build the models that will underpin UK digital competitiveness
