Poland Power, Power, Power

The event opened with two presentations, the first by Rafał Skowroński, Head of JLL Energy & Infrastructure for Poland and CEE, which set the scene for the discussions that followed. Europe's main data centre hubs — Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin, collectively known as FLAP-D — are facing severe capacity constraints. Connecting a new facility to the electricity grid in these markets can take between seven and ten years.

As a result, access to power is becoming more important than its price, argued Vladislav Bystritckii, manager at JLL Energy & Infrastructure Advisory for Poland and CEE.

The first panel, moderated by Sabina Kubsik, brought together Remo Silva of Gleeds, Rafał Kran of MDDP, Magdalena Szwarc-Brożyna of Clyde & Co and Marco Lomuscio of RINA. The panellists agreed that the growth of AI is transforming the data centre market, with AI-focused facilities requiring substantially more power than traditional data centres. As Magdalena Szwarc-Brożyna put it, the industry's mantra is no longer “location, location, location”, but “power, power, power”.

Katarzyna Rzetecka, managing director of RINA Prime, then outlined the types of investors active in the data centre market. She was followed by Arkadiusz Dorynek, a new technologies expert at the National Institute of Telecommunications, who discussed the government's plans to develop an AI factory in Poland.

The next panel, moderated by Tomasz Stasiak, co-managing partner for real estate and construction in Poland at Wolf Theiss, examined the question of where new data centres should be built. The discussion brought together Aleksandra Wołodźko, CEO of Greenfields; Arkadiusz Dorynek; Dominik Strzałkowski, partner at SSW; Radosław Piedziuk, business development manager at Dell Technologies; and Katarzyna Błaszkowska, technical director at Karmar.

Despite the focus on site selection, the discussion returned to the same fundamental constraint: access to electricity. Data centres do not necessarily have to be located close to their end users, but they do need a reliable source of power.

After lunch, Anna Nienałtowska, Head of Sales Poland at Westbridge Advisory, moderated a panel examining how Europe and Poland compare with the US and Asia. The participants were Agnieszka Jankowska of CBRE, Dariusz Domański, managing partner at White Star Real Estate, Paweł Olszynka, Head of ICT & Digital Market Analysis at PMR, and Marta Iwańczuk-Grzywna, global category manager at Versigent.

The panellists identified an opportunity for Poland in the constraints facing Europe's established FLAP-D markets. Limited power availability and connectivity challenges are restricting their ability to expand, potentially opening the door for alternative locations in Central and Eastern Europe.

The final panel addressed the power question directly. Moderated by Angelika Szufel, counsel at CMS, it featured Piotr Maciołek, board member of PIGEOR; Katarzyna Łabinowicz of EY Polska; Paweł Łączkowski, partner at Wolf Theiss; and Piotr Hytroś, strategy and development expert at Energopomiar.

The discussion highlighted the need for a guaranteed supply of electricity from diversified sources. Although the industry faces growing pressure to reduce its environmental footprint, sustainability must go hand in hand with reliability. For data centre operators, a green energy strategy is of limited value unless the power is available when it is needed.

Across the day's discussions, one message stood out: Poland has an opportunity to benefit from the capacity constraints affecting Europe's established data centre hubs. But turning that opportunity into investment will depend on whether the country can provide the electricity supply and supporting infrastructure that increasingly power-hungry AI facilities require.