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Data centres are energy-intensive, re-shaping the energy and backup power landscape. Rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI), alongside increasing data centre IT processing and cooling loads, is placing growing pressure on national electricity infrastructure and data centre power strategies.
The UK had approximately 1.6 gigawatts of data centre capacity in 2024, forecast to quadruple by 2030. As power density and reliability requirements increase, uninterrupted power provision becomes essential.
In early 2025, the UK Government outlined its ambition to become an ‘AI superpower’, publishing the AI Opportunities Action Plan and launching Artificial Intelligence Growth Zones (AIGZs). These initiatives aim to accelerate investment in data centres by addressing planning, grid, and power constraints. Alongside reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework in December 2025, they reflect how strategically important data centres are expected to become in the UK economy.
However, several major projects highlight ongoing barriers. The proposed West London Technology Park hyperscale data centre has faced delays since its 2022 application refusal due to Green Belt concerns. A subsequent appeal was dismissed, and a later government review found earlier planning decisions inadequate due to omitted environmental impact assessment considerations. Elsewhere, BP cancelled its Teesside hydrogen plant in favour of a data centre development, underscoring the current market prioritisation of digital infrastructure over alternative energy projects.
Meeting modern data centre demands requires power strategies built for high-density loads, true uptime, and scalable resilience. Operators must ensure systems can accommodate future expansion while maintaining real-time visibility, operational flexibility, and uninterrupted protection.
At Dale Power Solutions, operators are supported across the full critical-power lifecycle from design and installation to commissioning and long-term maintenance, delivering infrastructure engineered for modern data centre environments.
Delivering this level of resilience requires Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems engineered around four core performance pillars:
Resilient UPS architectures - Systems designed for parallel operation, N+1, and 2N redundancy form the backbone of high-availability environments and integrate seamlessly with standby generation.
Modular scalability - Modular UPS platforms enable incremental capacity expansion, hot-swappable modules, reduced mean time to repair, and concurrent maintainability aligned with uptime SLAs.
Maintainability without downtime - Engineered serviceability, including maintenance bypass systems and modular replacement, allows safe intervention while protecting live loads.
Real-time system intelligence - Open-protocol SNMP and Modbus communications enable integration with DCIM, BMS, and remote monitoring platforms, providing live performance data, alarm visibility, diagnostics, and predictive maintenance insights.
Resilient, scalable, maintainable, and intelligent UPS systems are essential for safeguarding uptime in modern data centres. Working with experienced engineering partners ensures infrastructure is designed not only for today’s load demands, but for tomorrow’s growth.
Visit Stand G180 at Data Centre World (DCW) 2026 to speak with the team about how Dale Power Solutions can support your next data centre project with proven engineering and full-lifecycle power resilience.
