The Executive of Isabel Díaz Ayuso has formally requested a hearing procedure before the Council of State regarding "the serious consequences" that, in his opinion, the Royal Decree of the Government on data centers will entail for the Community of Madrid, considering that it puts at risk up to 26 billion euros of investment and more than 14,000 jobs.
The central Government has sent the Council of State a revised version of the regulation in which it lowers some of the requirements included in the initial draft to establish the regulatory framework for the 'data center' sector. However, the Minister of Digitalization, Miguel López-Valverde, argues that the new wording continues to be discriminatory for the data center industry and does not correct the legal insecurity problems that the original text already presented.
"It is a very restrictive regulation that will drive investments to other European countries where the regulatory framework is less demanding," warned the minister, who interprets that the Government wanted to make "a nod to the renewable sector" with the introduced modifications, "but has left the entire industry unprotected, overlooking that they are the real basis of digital transformation."
In this line, he emphasized that "Data centers are the pillar of the digital economy. There will be no digital economy without data centers." In his view, the new regulatory design compromises the development of this ecosystem in Spain compared to other community markets.
Regarding the energy obligations provided by the central Executive, López-Valverde has warned that they would involve multi-million euro disbursements for companies in the sector, an increase in electricity costs, and a greater volume of renewable energy spills. "Data centers operate 24 hours a day and renewables only have the capacity to cover 2,000 hours a year. To comply with the new decree, it would be necessary to oversize the renewable park and install huge amounts of storage," he has alerted.
The minister has also added "the uncertainty" arising from the new condition included in the draft, which requires these facilities to voluntarily adhere to the SRAP system (Automatic Power Reduction System), under which Red Eléctrica can disconnect them from the grid at any time.
Finally, he has stated that he does not understand why the data center sector is not subject to criteria comparable to those of other European projects considered strategic, such as the Artificial Intelligence Gigafactory, where the framework of requirements is much more beneficial.