- Uniper plans to invest around €5 billion between 2025 and 2030, with more than half directed towards flexible generation.
- The utility has identified more than ten power plant sites suitable for data centres; three projects are at an advanced stage and one UK project is complete.
- The strategy strengthens Uniper’s sale proposition but leaves open how new round-the-clock demand will be reconciled with decarbonisation.
Uniper is targeting data centres as anchor customers for its power plants and development sites as the German utility prepares to invest approximately €5 billion in flexible generation, renewables and energy security by 2030.
More than half of the planned investment will go into flexible generating capacity, while just over half of total spending is expected to take place in Germany. The company said rising demand from artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure created opportunities for structured power purchase agreements and, where economical, direct supply from its own generation.
Uniper has identified more than ten sites along major European data centre corridors that already possess suitable infrastructure. Three developments are in advanced preparation, with investment decisions expected this year, while one project in Britain has been completed. The company has not disclosed the customers or capacities involved.
Former power stations can offer data centre developers scarce grid capacity, industrial land, transport access and – in some cases – cooling and water infrastructure. Utilities can in turn secure long-duration demand for electricity and potentially redevelop sites affected by coal closures.
Uniper’s model goes further than simply leasing land. The company wants to combine data centre development with PPAs, trading, renewable power and reliable generation. This could provide customers with a more structured energy package than a conventional grid connection, while allowing Uniper to monetise both physical assets and its commodity optimisation business.
Digital loads
The announcement comes as Germany prepares to privatise most of the company. Berlin acquired 99.12% of Uniper during the 2022 European gas crisis, when the loss of contracted Russian supplies pushed the utility towards collapse. The government is now considering a sale or wider stock market offering while retaining a blocking minority of 25% plus one share. The process could value Uniper at more than €10 billion.
Uniper supplies about one fifth of Germany’s gas, operates major storage and generation assets and has stabilised its balance sheet since the rescue. Data centres offer a visible source of electricity demand growth at a time when conventional European consumption has been stagnant.
The company aims to operate between 15 GW and 20 GW of generation by 2030, with at least half classified as renewable, low-carbon or “decarbonisable”. That final category is key: gas-fired plants designed to use hydrogen or carbon capture in future are not necessarily low carbon when commissioned.
Flexible gas generation may be required to support renewables and round-the-clock digital loads, but its eventual emissions will depend on operating hours, fuel and the arrival of viable decarbonisation infrastructure. The rapid development of data centres could increase gas burn if new clean generation, networks and storage fail to keep pace.
The same question applies in the UK, where Uniper is an established power market participant. Pairing computing campuses with former power sites could accelerate redevelopment and bypass some locational constraints. But private wire or direct-supply arrangements must not shift network costs to other consumers or lock scarce grid capacity into inflexible demand.
Uniper’s strategy captures an important change in utility economics: data centres are becoming sufficiently large to influence generation investment, site redevelopment and power contracting. The opportunity is real; whether it advances the energy transition will depend on what flexible generation is built around those loads and how quickly that capacity becomes genuinely low carbon.
