Growing electricity demand in Scotland could help lower long-term energy bills across the UK, the head of Britain’s energy system operator has said.

Speaking in Glasgow at the All‑Energy Exhibition and Conference, National Energy System Operator (NESO) chief executive Fintan Slye said the operator is looking at large electricity users to be located in Scotland due to the country’s abundance of renewable energy.

NESO is developing a series of long‑term strategic plans up to 2050 for Scotland and the rest of Britain, examining how demand, networks and generation can work together more efficiently.

The organisation’s analysis suggests that with sufficiently strong locational signals, up to 20% of future data centre demand could be located in Scotland. This would include AI data centres.

With clearer, long‑term planning of where demand grows... we can actually reduce pressure on the network, cut costs paid by consumers, and make better use of our renewable energy

Fintan Slye, National Energy System Operator

Mr Slye said: “Scotland produces significant amounts of clean, home‑grown electricity that is vital for Britain’s energy security.

“There is the opportunity to harness that energy to fuel growth in Scotland. With clearer, long‑term planning of where demand grows – including for infrastructure like data centres – we can actually reduce pressure on the network, cut costs paid by consumers, and make better use of our renewable energy.”

Scotland generates large volumes of electricity and at times the electricity network does not have enough capacity to move all of this power to where it is needed.

Wind farms can therefore be paid to reduce output, while power stations elsewhere are paid to increase generation to keep the system balanced. These balancing costs are paid for by consumers.

The UK is currently undergoing a phase to upgrade the electricity grid due to this issue, to attempt to move renewable energy from the north of Scotland to the south of England.

NESO has said creating more demand closer to where renewable power is generated could reduce the need for both actions, making Scotland a viable option for such projects.