Executive Summary

• The UK Data Centre Energy Summit is happening Wednesday, 10th and Thursday, 11th June and seeks to reframe industry conversations around energy and AI infrastructure.
• Rather than seeing energy as a secondary consideration, the event flips the coin and places the energy sector at the centre of the conversation to examine how it must evolve to meet the exponential demands of AI-driven infrastructure.
• Its primary objective is to move beyond merely identifying challenges to actively accelerating the delivery of infrastructure.

The UK’s data centres are vital to its critical infrastructure, representing a significant opportunity for economic growth and investment. The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is dramatically escalating the scale and urgency of global energy demand. To address this, the Data Centre Energy Summit (DCES) 2026 will bring together key leaders from the UK’s energy and digital infrastructure sectors. The core focus will be confronting a critical challenge: how to power the next generation of data centres within an increasingly strained energy system.

Taking place in London, Storey Club Paddington, the Summit brings a timely and necessary perspective to the market. Rather than approaching energy as a secondary consideration within data centre development, the event deliberately reverses the lens: placing the energy sector at the centre of the conversation and examining how it must evolve to meet the exponential demands of AI-driven infrastructure.

As hyperscale computing, cloud expansion, and generative AI accelerate, data centres are emerging as one of the defining energy challenges of the decade. Grid constraints, planning bottlenecks, water usage, and rising capital costs are no longer peripheral concerns; they are now fundamental barriers to growth. The Data Centre Energy Summit is designed to address these pressures head-on by aligning engineers, policymakers, investors, and energy providers around practical, scalable solutions.

Throughout the day, discussions will explore how digital infrastructure can be delivered in an energy-constrained environment, examining the integration of on-site power generation, grid strategy, and engineering design from the earliest stages of development. Sessions will also delve into the emergence of energy campuses and microgrid models, as well as the financial realities shaping the sector, where investors are increasingly focused on cost certainty and bankable energy strategies in a volatile landscape.

Innovation remains a central theme, particularly as operators grapple with the physical limits of high-density computing. Cooling technologies, grid constraints and heat reuse strategies will be examined not as isolated technical challenges, but as interconnected elements of a broader energy ecosystem. At the same time, the Summit will address the growing importance of planning frameworks, ESG transparency, and community engagement in securing both regulatory approval and investor confidence.

The speaker line-up reflects the Summit’s cross-sector ambition, bringing together senior figures from organisations spanning energy, engineering, policy, and digital infrastructure. Confirmed participants include Paul Stein, CEO of Floral Energy, Katie Davies, Head of Energy & Infrastructure policy at TechUK and Jonathan Clark, Associate Director at Gleeds, alongside a broader cohort of industry leaders shaping the future of power and connectivity.

Crucially, the Summit’s positioning is what sets it apart. As Eric Lewis, Managing Director of Foresight Industries, explains: “We have deliberately chosen to approach this summit from the perspective of the energy sector looking at data centres, rather than the other way around. This perspective allows us to better understand how different parts of the energy sector can respond to one of the fastest-growing challenges in infrastructure today.”

The traditional approach where data centre developers address power needs late in the process, is now obsolete due to strained grids and escalating demand. This demands a critical reframing of strategy. The industry’s future hinges on the early and comprehensive integration of energy strategy, engineering design, and capital investment.

The Data Centre Energy Summit serves as a unique and vital platform to foster this collaboration. By bringing together key decision-makers from utilities, renewable and nuclear energy development, infrastructure funds, and regulatory bodies, the summit facilitates meaningful dialogue. Its primary objective is to move beyond merely identifying challenges to actively accelerating the delivery of infrastructure that is simultaneously economically viable and energy-secure. Find out more about the summit here.