The Ministry of Environment and Energy announced that electro-intensive industries will have priority for grid connection over data centers. The decision aims to ensure that the highest energy consumption is directed toward activities that generate the greatest economic and social return for the country.
The Minister of Environment and Energy justified the measure stating that "an industry brings much more local and export wealth and many more jobs" than data centers. This declaration summarizes the rationale behind the electricity capacity allocation policy.
The prioritization of electro-intensive industries comes in a context of growing demand for electricity, particularly driven by the expansion of data centers and the energy transition. The capacity of the electrical grid is limited, which requires strategic choices about where to allocate available resources.
The measure reflects a political choice to favor the industrial sector as an engine of economic development, over the technological sector associated with data centers, which, although they also generate employment, are considered less generators of local and export wealth.
