The Community of Madrid has expressed its rejection of the central Government's draft Royal Decree to regulate data centers, a norm that, in its opinion, "will hinder investment" and "will reduce competitiveness for Spain," putting obstacles to the growth of this digital activity.
Last Thursday, the regional Executive sent several allegations to Pedro Sánchez's Government in which it defends that the current saturation of the electrical grid should not be addressed by limiting demand or investments, but through the reinforcement and expansion of existing electrical infrastructures.
According to the Community of Madrid, the text concentrates a battery of demands and obligations in areas such as energy, water, contracts, and digital sovereignty, and subordinates them to access and connection to the electrical grid. Non-compliance with these conditions could imply economic surcharges and even the withdrawal of already granted access permits.
All of this, warn the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture, and Interior, would generate "legal insecurity" that would impact both projects in the processing phase and those that already have access and connection authorizations.
The regional Government emphasizes that many of these initiatives were designed under a different regulatory framework and that they could now face new obligations not initially contemplated.
MORE THAN 50 PROJECTS IN THE REGION
In the Community of Madrid, there are currently 56 data center projects, of which 15 are under construction and 41 are in the design phase. Together, they represent an estimated investment of 15 billion euros and the creation of between 17,000 and 24,000 jobs, both direct and indirect.
According to the figures from the regional Executive, the investment commitment could translate into up to 26.25 billion euros of direct impact on the Madrid Gross Domestic Product (GDP), not including the "spillover" effect on the rest of the knowledge industry that relies on these infrastructures.
The Madrid Government maintains that data centers are a key piece for the advancement of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital services. Therefore, it argues that regulation should combine energy efficiency and sustainability with legal security and the ability to attract capital.
In this line, the regional Executive warns that the new framework designed by the central Government may become an obstacle for the installation of these infrastructures and demands that Spain take advantage of its energy potential and the rise of renewables to establish itself as one of the major European hubs of digitalization.
DEMAND PARLIAMENTARY PROCESS
The Community of Madrid also questions that Sánchez's Government has chosen to articulate these measures through a royal decree. It considers that, due to its "quasi prohibitive" nature, its sanctioning content, and its possible retroactive effect, it should be processed as a norm with the rank of law and submitted to the debate and approval of the Cortes.
For this reason, the regional Executive demands the withdrawal and a profound reformulation of the project, in order to establish a regulatory framework that, without renouncing the objectives of efficiency, sustainability, decarbonization, and digital sovereignty, favors investment, the expansion of electrical networks, and the availability of energy.
Meanwhile, the central Government continues to dialogue with companies in the technology sector to outline the details of the future royal decree on data centers and maintains, according to sources from the Executive itself, that the new environmental, energy, and digital sovereignty requirements will not pose a brake on the arrival of investments to Spain.