Norway’s government says it will explore a licensing system for data-centre construction and operation; the plan is not yet a finalized rule. Separately, state grid operator Statnett has paused new connection-capacity reservations for data centres, with the temporary measure expected to end no later than 1 August 2027.

The government says 800 megawatts of data-centre load is connected, 4.2 gigawatts has reserved capacity and 9.1 gigawatts is waiting in the queue, with another 18 gigawatts in connection requests. Those figures exceed Norway’s current peak electricity use of just over 25 gigawatts when combined, though requests are not the same as approved or built capacity. Statnett says the pause is intended to develop operating requirements for grid stability; it does not sever existing connections or constitute a blanket ban.

Sources: [Norwegian government announcement](regjeringen.no source ↗); [Statnett notice](statnett.no source ↗); [Wiersholm analysis](wr.no source ↗).