Amsterdam has long been one of Europe's main data centre hubs. In 2026 it has become the clearest example in Europe of a market closed by two separate limits at once: planning rules that forbid new facilities and a transmission grid with no room left to connect them.
A project needs both a planning consent and a grid connection, as a timeline compiled by Serverside notes, so either limit can stop it. Around Amsterdam, both now do.
The planning wall
The rules have tightened in stages since 2019. In December 2020 Amsterdam adopted its data centre policy for 2020 to 2030, capping growth at 670 MVA to 2030 and requiring a power usage effectiveness below 1.2. In February 2022 the national government imposed a nine-month pause on new hyperscale data centres, defined as larger than 10 hectares and 70 MW, outside designated areas. A decree published in December 2023 made that hyperscale restriction permanent from 1 January 2024.
Amsterdam went further. In December 2023 the city announced a temporary stop on new data centres until 2030. In April 2025 alderman Zita Pels proposed extending the stop to 2035 and applying it to expansions of existing sites. As of 23 September 2026, the rules in force allow no new data centres and no expansions until 2035, with exceptions only for applications submitted before 28 December 2023 and projects already in advanced talks with the municipality, according to the timeline.
The grid wall
Even a project with planning consent faces a second barrier. On 19 December 2024 it was announced, according to the Serverside timeline, that there would be no extra capacity in large parts of Noord-Holland for the next ten years, with overloads expected from 2026 north of Beverwijk and around the Vijfhuizen high-voltage substation, which serves south-west Amsterdam. When 606 large users with connections above 1 MW were asked whether they could avoid the peak, 66 said they could.
TenneT, the national transmission operator, has placed applications from large consumers for new or heavier connections on a waiting list. It says the provincial grid could still become overloaded as early as winter 2026-27, because existing connections will also draw more power. The province's network is split into four subgrids. In Vijfhuizen, the company says, "data centres account for most of the high electricity consumption," and it expects an overload there in winter 2026-27 if no action is taken. In North Holland North, large consumers have committed to shifting demand away from peak times from 2026, which TenneT expects will postpone overload until 2029. Minor problems are expected in Diemen from 2028, and new applicants in Oostzaan now join a waiting list as well.
The company is investigating whether the Vijfhuizen grid can be loaded more heavily and whether it can use emergency capacity for the largest consumers that have their own backup power. Those are stopgaps. "The measures announced today are not a structural solution to grid congestion," TenneT said, adding that the provincial grid will be expanded everywhere between 2034 and 2036 on the current schedule.
The Goodman ruling
A court in Arnhem tested the waiting list this spring. On 29 April it dismissed a claim by developer Goodman, which wanted TenneT to resume work on a 70 MW connection at the Vijfhuizen substation near Schiphol for a data centre, NL Times reported. The court found that the grid in the region is genuinely at full capacity and that several applicants, including Goodman, had been placed on a waiting list until capacity is freed.
Goodman argued that its connection process was advanced enough for it to count as a contracted customer, which would have protected it from the queue. The court disagreed. The developer had asked for a penalty of EUR 500,000 per day if TenneT failed to resume the work from 1 June 2026, and said it had already spent about EUR 500,000 on permits and preliminary connection costs. NL Times reported that the constraint could last until around 2035.
The written judgment fills in the history. Goodman first discussed a 110 MVA high-voltage connection with TenneT, which said in August 2021 that at most 80 MVA was available. The developer then applied for 70 MVA, to be available in the fourth quarter of 2029, and TenneT confirmed that the capacity was reserved for it until further notice. On 15 January 2026, after revisiting its congestion study, TenneT told Goodman by email that congestion in Noord-Holland would be resolved in 2033 to 2036. A connection planned for the end of the decade had become one for the middle of the next.
Households in the queue
The congestion now reaches homes. In January to May 2026 there were 27,500 household requests for a heavier connection, against 18,000 a year earlier, and about 7,300 households were placed on a waiting list for the first time, according to figures compiled in the Serverside timeline. That shift changes the politics of data centres. When residents are waiting for heavier connections of their own, a new hyperscale campus is a hard sell.
The national prioritisation framework reflects those choices. In congestion areas, grid operators connect projects that relieve congestion, such as batteries, along with safety services and basic needs ahead of the queue. A replacement framework in force from 1 January 2026 added public transport and shared housing to the priority list. Data centres are not on it.
Where demand goes instead
For operators, Amsterdam's closure pushes growth elsewhere: to designated hyperscale zones, to other Dutch regions with grid headroom and to competing hubs across northern Europe. The national rule that confines hyperscale campuses to designated areas was meant to steer that growth, but the grid now decides as much as the planners do.
What to watch
The milestones are TenneT's reinforcement schedule and the next round of congestion studies. Any sign that Vijfhuizen can be loaded more heavily would reopen some capacity before the mid-2030s. In the meantime, the Goodman ruling has settled the legal question: a data centre without a signed connection agreement cannot jump a full grid's queue in the Netherlands.