Israel's Electricity Authority caps new data center connection capacity at 200MW, with per-megawatt guarantees

Israel's Electricity Authority has capped new data center connection capacity at 200MW, Data Center Dynamics reported on 19 October, citing Calcalistech.

Developers will have to provide guarantees of NIS 2 million ($643,300) for every megawatt of connection capacity they request. They must also install backup mechanisms that allow data centers to be disconnected from the grid during periods of high demand.

At the stated rate, a project requesting the full 200MW would need guarantees of about $129 million.

NOGA, the national system operator, said it had about 27GW of projects seeking a grid connection. In July it issued a temporary order freezing responses to data center requests of 8MW or more. That freeze is expected to run until early December while the Electricity Authority, the Ministry of Energy and NOGA complete a joint review of how to divide power between data centers and the rest of the economy.

Alongside the cap, the authority said it would allocate an additional 1GW to large data centers, lifting the sector's contracted capacity above 3GW. If realized, that would account for around 20% of the country's electricity consumption in 2030.

Officials traced the surge in connection requests to the National Cyber Defense Bill, passed by the Knesset in February, which designated data centers as national infrastructure in order to remove planning and construction constraints. They described the cap and guarantee requirement as the policy response.

The report does not specify whether the 200MW cap applies per project, per site, or per developer, which determines whether a sponsor can stack multiple campuses inside the cap.

The rules are not final. A full decision is slated for publication in the coming days, following a three-week public consultation.