The government is turning its attention to ensuring its commitment to positioning the UK as an artificial intelligence (AI) superpower does not come at the expense of the environment or the nation’s energy security.
It is a balancing act the UK’s newly formed AI Energy Council will be tasked with managing, while also exploring ways that AI can be deployed across the UK’s energy network itself during its inaugural meeting today (8 April 2025).
The council will be co-chaired by technology secretary Peter Kyle and energy secretary Ed Miliband, with the first meeting geared towards establishing how industry and government can work together to build a sustainably powered AI economy.
“The work of the AI Energy Council will ensure we aren’t just powering our AI needs to deliver new waves of opportunity in all parts of the country, but can do so in a way which is responsible and sustainable,” said Kyle.
“This requires a broad range of expertise from industry and regulators as we fire up the UK’s economic engine to make it fit for the age of AI – meaning we can deliver the growth which is the beating heart of our Plan for Change.”
On that point, it is expected the meeting will be attended by representatives from various energy market stakeholders, including the National Grid, regulator Ofgem, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) and Scottish Power, to name a few.
“AI can play an important role in building a new era of clean electricity for our country, and as we unlock AI’s potential, this council will help secure a sustainable scale-up to benefit businesses and communities across the UK,” added Miliband.
Representatives from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Microsoft and Nvidia are also expected to attend, to share their views on how to build hyperscale AI datacentres that are energy- and water-efficient.
Alison Kay, vice-president for the UK and Ireland at AWS, said the public cloud giant’s views on sustainably meeting the growing demand for AI technologies very much align with what the AI Energy Council is looking to achieve.
“As the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for the fifth year in a row, we share the government’s goal to ensure the UK has sufficient access to carbon-free energy to support its AI ambitions and to help drive economic growth,” she said.
News of the council’s creation was first announced in January 2025, as part of the government’s response to the AI opportunities action plan, which included a pledge to create AI growth zones that would become home to datacentres housing AI workloads to accelerate the pace of developments in this field.
However, as reported by Computer Weekly at the time, concerns were raised about the green impact of ramping up the UK’s AI datacentre footprint, as well as how the National Grid would cope with an influx of facilities drawing power from it.
In response, the UK government has now confirmed that the AI growth zones will be sited in areas with access to at least 500MW of power.
“AI will play an increasingly important role in transforming our energy system to be cleaner, more efficient and more cost-effective for consumers, but only if used in a fair, secure, sustainable and safe way,” said Ofgem CEO Jonathan Brearley.
“Working alongside other members of this council, Ofgem will ensure AI implementation puts consumer interests first – from customer service to infrastructure planning and operation – so that everyone feels the benefits of this technological innovation in energy.”
