Rosseti allowed to connect another 3.3 GW for data centers

Rosseti has connected 195 computing centers with a declared capacity of 2.4 GW, while another 134 objects with 3.3 GW are under consideration. This was told by a member of the board, deputy general director of the energy company Alexei Molsky during a speech at the Russian Energy Week - 2026, RBC correspondent reports.

According to Rosseti, by 2030 up to 7 GW of capacity can be connected to the power grid. But Molsky doubts the realism of this forecast: applications for accession are often filed by several investors counting on the same customer. As a result, the stated needs are higher than the actual ones.

The capacity of the declared projects is almost twice that of the existing ones. Currently, the total capacity of Russian data centers is estimated at 1.9 GW, of which about 0.9 GW is in the commercial segment and about 1 GW is in corporate data centers.

Data centers have become one of the fastest growing consumers of energy. According to the System Operator, their share in the total energy consumption structure increased from 1.4% in 2022 to 2.2% in 2025.

“They scared the power engineers a little with their huge needs,” said the top manager of Rosseti. In his opinion, in order to make more efficient use of the existing infrastructure, it is necessary to introduce a take-or-pay mechanism for all consumers, as well as provide for mandatory provision of load schedules.

The principle of take-or-pay in electric grids was proposed by the Ministry of Energy. It is expected that it will oblige industrial consumers of the category “from 670 kW” to pay for electricity transmission services at the declared capacity, rather than actual consumption. The mechanism may become effective for new consumers who have concluded a technological connection agreement after January 1, 2027. In technologically isolated power systems, the principle will be effective from 2028.

“We do not want to limit this category of consumers, we are working with data centers, discussing sites where there is free power,” Molsky said. We understand that computing centers usually reach full capacity gradually, this process can take several years. However, energy facilities for them are built immediately and require operating costs. Synchronization of plans to create a data center and the necessary network infrastructure will increase the efficiency of capacity use and reduce the burden on other consumers.”.

In addition, among the proposed solutions for the organization of power supply to the data center, the possibility of applicants to independently determine their reliability category, including the fourth (designed for consumers who do not require uninterrupted power supply - RBC), as well as the construction of a network of distributed data centers, was discussed. So, instead of one site at once at 80-100 MW, computing power can be placed at 5-15 MW near underloaded power centers with a voltage of 35-110 kV. This allows you to quickly connect objects with minimal costs, and also increases the sustainability of infrastructure, says Molsky.

Real demand below bids

Deputy Minister of Digital Development Evgeny Filatov noted that the industry’s confirmed need for data center capacities by 2030 will additionally amount to about 1.8 GW. We are talking about real demand from data center builders, not the total volume of applications for technological connection to networks.

“The applications reflect one picture, and the real needs of the market – another”, – said Filatov. Applications are not submitted to data center builders or data center operators. The largest companies that build large data centers and fill them with equipment are now targeting about 1.8 GW. And it is not known how this figure will change further: demand may be confirmed or slightly increased. But that is the assessment at the moment.”.

The Ministry is developing a general scheme for the location of data centers. According to the baseline scenario, by 2036 their capacity will grow by about 3 GW, in the negative - by 1.8 GW.

The Deputy Minister drew attention to the high cost of building data centers. According to his estimates, the construction of the facility itself with the necessary infrastructure costs more than 3 billion rubles. per 1 MW of power consumed, and equipment with computing equipment - from 5-7 billion to 20 billion rubles. per 1 MW, depending on the project. Thus, when scaling to several gigawatts, we will already talk about trillions of rubles. According to Filatov, the economy of companies is unlikely to fill 7 GW of capacity.

As for the timing of filling the data center with equipment, this process takes five to six years, with the maximum connection power usually laid immediately, says Filatov. Therefore, the take-or-pay mechanism is applicable to the industry, but its parameters must be adapted to the specifics of consumption.

Data center load depends on the season: in winter, when less cooling is required, they can consume 40-50% of the declared power, in summer – up to 70%. According to Filatov, these features should be taken into account when determining the obligations of consumers to pay for reserved capacity.

But the deputy minister warned that for fully functioning data centers, the fourth category may be unacceptable. Unlike mining facilities, which can allow such restrictions, data centers provide important services (such as taxis), and power outages can affect their availability. The use of diesel generators is not a full-fledged alternative: such equipment is not designed for regular long-term operation and is expensive for operators.

First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy Valery Seleznev called this option a forced measure for territories where there are no technical opportunities for standard connection. According to him, after filing an application for the fourth reliability category, a subsequent transition to the second or third category is possible as the energy deficit in a particular area is eliminated.

What experts think

Advisor to the Managing Fund “Industrial code” Maxim Shaposhnikov notes that the Ministry takes into account already ready-made objects that are actually put into operation. He believes that the ministry is most likely talking only about data centers for large language models (LLM), while Rosseti indicates the entire infrastructure of computing centers and data storage centers.

More realistic, Shaposhnikov said, is estimating the need for data centers in the 2.5-4 GW range by 2030, as new models require less electricity per unit of computing, and initial enthusiasm for language models may wan as critical bugs and vulnerabilities of systems based on them are identified.

According to the expert, the gap between applications for technical connection and confirmed demand is explained by the fact that companies submit applications in advance, hoping for further market growth and seeking to reserve capacities in conditions of their shortage, primarily in the capital region.

At the same time, independent energy expert Kirill Rodionov believes that the demand for new data centers from business will grow, including due to the need to create backup computing power in case of force majeure. At the same time, in his opinion, the key issue in terms of payment for electricity after technical connection.

In particular, the transition to the “take or pay” principle, in which the consumer pays for the transmission of electricity based on the declared capacity, can increase the costs of data center operators and affect the development of the industry. Therefore, even if the installed capacity of data centers will grow significantly, the further dynamics of the market will depend on how economically viable the content of connected capacities will be.