Data Centers Emerge as a New Industrial Powerhouse
Data centers are rapidly becoming major electricity consumers. According to PJSC Rosseti, an additional 3 GW of capacity will be allocated to new computing centers in the near term.
At a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Rosseti CEO Andrey Ryumin said data centers with a combined capacity of 2 GW are already connected to the company’s grid. Applications for another 3 GW of capacity are currently under review.
“In recent years, demand for power supply to various types of computing centers has been growing at an accelerated pace. This is clearly linked to digitalization, the expansion of digital services, mining and artificial intelligence,” Ryumin said.
For comparison, 3 GW is roughly equivalent to the average electricity consumption of a city with a population of just over two million. That makes demand for new data center connections at this scale a clear indicator of how quickly Russia’s digital economy is expanding.
On the one hand, this trend is raising the level of digitalization across both the public sector and everyday services, making life more convenient for citizens. On the other, it is creating new and complex challenges for both the IT sector and the power industry.
Finding a Balance Between Growth and Regulation
To sustain data center market growth in Russia over the coming years, several structural issues need to be addressed. The government is actively supporting the sector. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Digital Development is assessing demand for computing capacity, and in March it approved a roadmap for high-performance computing and supercomputer infrastructure. Discussions are already underway on creating dedicated energy zones with preferential tariffs and fast-track grid connections for data centers.
At the same time, the Ministry of Energy and Rosseti have expressed concerns about such incentives, warning they could increase cross-subsidization. They also stress the need for clear rules governing how computing capacity is used. Running workloads that support the broader economy is one scenario, while large-scale mining farms represent another, and those facilities should pay full market rates.
In the near term, the Russian government and industry stakeholders will need to solve a difficult policy challenge: how to encourage investment in critical IT infrastructure without putting additional strain on the power system.
When Demand Outpaced Supply
The rapid rise in demand for computing capacity has long been expected to drive new generation projects. In 2025, 5,335 new commercial rack spaces were commissioned, three times fewer than in 2024. The main constraint was limited access to electricity. The shortage is most acute in Moscow and the surrounding region, which accounts for more than 75% of the country’s computing capacity.
Meanwhile, construction of new data centers has accelerated in other regions where power access is less constrained. In 2019, Rostelecom launched the Kalininsky data center near the Kalinin nuclear power plant. In 2025, the company opened another facility in Nizhny Novgorod.
The Future of AI as an Engineering Challenge
Ryumin’s remarks signal that, despite current constraints, a new infrastructure layer is actively taking shape. Even in energy-constrained regions such as Moscow and the Moscow region, plans call for connecting data centers with a combined capacity of 4 GW by 2030.
Two parallel trends are likely to define the next phase. First, new generation capacity will be built in central regions, where demand for data centers is highest. Second, computing facilities will increasingly be deployed in remote areas close to local power generation. Projects of this type are already underway in the Yamal region.
Given that building a new 100 MW data center costs about 100 billion rubles (approximately $1.1 billion), investment in this sector and in the power industry is expected to deliver strong multiplier effects across the broader economy.
