A new wave of artificial intelligence (AI) innovation has reached Europe, and both its pace and adoption show no sign of slowing. According to a new report from JLL, an estimated 10 GW of new data centre capacity is projected to break ground across the global hyperscale and colocation landscape in 2025, and the market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 15-20% through 2027.
In the UK and Ireland, the digital and consumer economies are quickly changing, with data and AI fuelling a new industrial revolution. Governments, investors and businesses alike are seeking new ways to capitalise on the AI opportunity, and exploring new measures to catalyse sustainable, economic growth.
Powering data centres in the era of AI
The data centres of the future have become a critical fourth utility for our lives and are today ushering in a new era where digital infrastructure has become a catalyst for renewable energy and AI-powered innovation.
Deploying AI, however, presents a host of unique challenges for data centres, particularly regarding energy use. In fact, as AI continues to accelerate in both adoption and use cases, organisations must now shift their focus to developing an energy strategy that optimises power consumption and usage, rather than simply increasing power supply.
This not only means finding ways to decouple AI data centre growth from energy consumption but further emphasizes the need for greater efficiency and sustainability within data centre design and buildouts. To achieve a greener future powered by AI, therefore, we must not only accelerate the build-out of digital infrastructure and renewable energy developments, but harness the power of the ecosystem to ensure it is done so as sustainably as possible.
During his keynote at Data Centre World London, Schneider Electric’s Vice President, Secure Power Division, UK and Ireland, Mark Yeeles, will share a host of strategies to help businesses successfully navigate this rapidly evolving landscape. Join us at 11:05am on the 12 March 2025 on the ‘Global Strategies, People, Environment & Innovation’ stage to learn about the impact of AI on data centres, and how to overcome its challenges.
Mark will also share how Schneider Electric is working to ‘bend the energy curve of AI’ by employing a science-based approach to energy intelligence, and demonstrate how organisations can integrate data centre infrastructure with AI-driven applications as a tool for broader decarbonisation efforts.
AI and Asset Management Strategies
Where data centre modernisation and deployment is concerned, the exponential growth of the sector poses significant challenges on a multitude of plains.
On the one hand, designing new AI-ready facilities to meet the surge in demand is no small feat, requiring access to land, skills, components, and energy. On another, retrofitting legacy data centres for both the infrastructure hosting requirements of AI, and for greater sustainability and efficiency is another key factor, and both challenges are further compounded by a shortage of qualified technicians who have the skills necessary to perform these critical services.
At Data Centre World 2025, Schneider Electric will introduce a new Proactive Asset Management Strategy for data centres, leveraging IoT-enabled equipment for continuous monitoring, AI-powered predictive analytics, and digital commissioning to reduce costs and downtime. Through use of machine learning, predictive analytics and Digital Twins – including the complete spectrum of electro-mechanical systems, from the grid to the chip, and from the chip to the chiller – organisations can future-proof their data centre investments and mitigate risks, becoming truly ready for AI.
Join Dr Luke Durcan, Director Innovation & Incubation, Schneider Electric, in the ‘Design and Build & Physical Security Theatre’ on the 12 March at 16:35pm to learn how the company is introducing conversational and visual tools for technicians – leveraging large language models (LLMs) and virtual reality (VR), for remote troubleshooting, personalised expertise, and to improve service quality and consistency. Further, Dr Durcan will share practical examples of how Digital Twins are providing instrumentation for AI-driven services and integration, regardless of the equipment supplier, and how data scientists can monitor correlations, detect risks, and identify anomalies early – enabling continuous hypothesis formulation for new components including coolant distribution units (CDUs) and liquid cooling technologies.
Empowering the Ecosystem
As data centres evolve to meet the rising energy demands of AI, power and cooling systems must too evolve to accommodate their increased rack and server densities. For operators, a robust power train will ensure greater safety, efficiency, and security, providing the resilient foundations for AI-powered innovation.
During Data Centre World, Schneider Electric’s Vice President – Transactional Business, UK and Ireland, David Williams, will explore the key components of a resilient power infrastructure, and share why collaboration is vital to drive AI innovation.
Join him in the ‘Keynote: Global Strategies, People, Environment & Innovation’ theatre at 11:30am on the 13th March, as we share why having a diverse partner ecosystem is essential to deliver scalable, flexible solutions and robust power architectures, while helping the data centres of the future to become truly AI-ready.
End-to-end solutions for AI
With organisations now accelerating measures to meet the urgent energy and sustainability challenges driven by AI systems’ demand, Schneider Electric will also showcase its complete range of end-to-end, physical and digital AI-Ready infrastructure solutions, scaled to meet the needs of today’s data centres during the event.
At Stand DC235, visitors can view the latest advanced infrastructure solutions helping owners, operators and end-users decarbonise their digital systems, while enabling businesses to deploy more sustainable, AI-ready solutions anywhere, at scale.
Key highlights will include Schneider Electric’s recently launched Galaxy VXL UPS – the industry’s most compact, high-density power protection system for AI, data centre, and large-scale electrical workloads – and its latest advancements in chiller, CDU and liquid cooling technologies. Visitors can also see Schneider Electric’s new data centre reference designs, co-developed with NVIDIA and optimised for its GB200 NVL72 and Blackwell chips, which enable liquid-cooled, high-density AI clusters of up to 132 kW per rack to be deployed efficiently, at-scale.
Customers will also see live demonstrations of the complete breadth of Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure solutions portfolio for data centres – including its Ringmaster AirSet SF6-free switchgear, high-density AI racks, and advanced power distribution units (PDUs) – and see the future of AI-powered services via the launch of Schneider Electric’s EcoCare for Electrical Distribution service plans, using Augmented Reality (AR) to showcase the benefits of sustainable lifecycle optimisation.
