UK data centres · power · land
Where the UK can actually build AI infrastructure
The constraint on AI compute in Britain is not capital or hardware. It is land with power, a connection date and a route through planning. We assemble the evidence, and work alongside developers and landowners from the first screen to an energised site.
Illustrative — sites, substation capacity and the connections between them.
The bottleneck moved
Demand for compute is growing faster than the networks that feed it. Siting decisions now turn on questions that sit outside the data centre industry's traditional expertise.
Power sets the schedule
Available capacity varies substation by substation, and the upstream network decides whether a connection lands in a few years or well beyond the life of the deal.
Land decides feasibility
Ownership, planning designations, flood risk and what sits next door determine whether a site is worth pursuing at all, long before a design exists.
The evidence is scattered
Every input is public, and every input lives somewhere else: network operators, the Land Registry, planning authorities, environmental agencies. Rarely in one map.
What we analyse
Three layers, held together so a site can be judged on all of them at once rather than one at a time.
Grid & energy
Where capacity exists today, and what stands upstream of it.
- Demand headroom by substation
- Upstream grid and bulk supply context
- Network constraint boundaries
Land & planning
What the ground allows, and who holds it.
- Freehold title parcels
- Planning constraint designations
- Flood zones and nearby settlement
Market & connectivity
The estate that already exists, and what is coming.
- Operating and pipeline data centres
- Telecom infrastructure and exchanges
- Clustering around established hubs
From site to energised
The evidence is the beginning, not the deliverable. A site only counts once it has a connection agreement, a consent and a sequence of works that hold together. We work through that with you rather than handing over a report.
Grid strategy, not just a heatmap
Headroom on a map is a starting point. What matters is which connection option is realistic at this site, what it costs, when it lands, and how that conversation is framed with the network operator.
A planning case that holds
Constraints, neighbours and policy context decide how a scheme is received. We help shape the case and the evidence behind it, so the route to consent is understood before money is committed.
Alongside you, to energisation
Sites stall between milestones. We stay with the strategy through the stages that follow, keeping the sequence, the dependencies and the decisions in one place.
DC Scout
The platform behind the work. It turns the layers above into a single map, scores candidate sites against defined criteria, and tracks them from first look to decision — so the advice we give is grounded in evidence a client can inspect. Access is limited to partners working with us on live opportunities.
Screen a site
Draw a boundary and get a structured assessment across power, land, planning and surroundings.
Find candidates
Search an area for land that could host a given load, ranked by the constraints that matter.
Track a pipeline
Keep sites, documents and decisions in one place, with the history of how a view changed.
Sources stay visible
Every layer carries its origin and licence, so any figure can be traced back and checked.
How we work
Infrastructure decisions are expensive to get wrong, so the work is built to be questioned.
Public data, properly licensed
We build on published datasets from network operators, national mapping and land registration, planning and environmental bodies. Each is recorded with its licence and attribution.
Transparent scoring
Sites are scored against criteria that are written down and adjustable. Where a score comes from is always visible, so a judgement can be argued with.
Coverage stated plainly
Some layers are national, others are being rolled out authority by authority. The platform shows which is which rather than implying more coverage than exists.
Bucled
We work with developers, landowners and investors on UK data centre sites: screening and shortlisting, grid strategy and DNO engagement, the planning route, and the path to an energised connection.