All Articles

Two separate limits apply to new data centres in the Amsterdam area. Planning law decides where one may be built and how much power it may add, and Amsterdam, Haarlemmermeer and the national government each set their own rules. Grid capacity decides whether TenneT and Liander can connect it, and in most of Noord-Holland they have no room for new large users. A project needs both a planning consent and a grid connection, so either limit can stop it. Those rules come from the two municipalities, the national government, the grid operators, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) and the courts, and date from July 2019 to August 2026.

Most of the electricity grid in Noord-Holland is full for new or larger connections from big users, and Amsterdam has stopped new data centres, and expansions of existing ones, until 2035. Servers already running in Amsterdam keep their power. The shortage is in new capacity: another building, a bigger grid connection, or a denser rack in an existing hall.