02:58 AM EDT, 07/29/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The UK's Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, or Ofgem, launched a consultation to rein in speculative, unviable and stalled data center projects that are clogging up the country's grid capacity applications. The regulator said in a Wednesday filing that its planned crackdown initiatives include a new data center commitment fee and new project progress milestones. The fee will range from 2.5% to 7.5% of average project costs, charged to large data center developers when a connection offer is accepted. The fee will be refunded when the project is energized and will be forfeited if the project exits the connection queue early. Ofgem noted that demand connection applications jumped to 125 gigawatts from 41 GW between November 2024 and June 2025, with a majority of the surge attributable to data center projects. The measures are meant to help enable investment-ready and viable projects. The consultation will remain open until Sept. 16.

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