Israel’s power grid is struggling to manage the influx of data center projects seeking a power connection.

The Israeli Electricity Authority announced that it is freezing the processing of new applications to connect data centers to the power grid for the next 140 days. Described as an “emergency brake,” the pause is designed to ensure that the system does not make connection commitments it may be unable to fulfill in the future.

The freeze is expected to last until early December and will impact all data centers with a capacity of 8MW or more.

According to the Agency, the country’s transmission operator, Israel Independent System Operator (NOGA), had received 19GW of new requests from data center operators seeking a grid connection within two months. In total, the country now has roughly 27GW of pending data center grid applications, nearly triple its average baseline consumption.

During the freeze, the Electricity Authority, the Ministry of Energy, and NOGA will complete a joint review to develop a new policy for allocating electricity resources between data centers and the economy at large. According to reports, over the period, government teams will seek to map the requests, establish new eligibility criteria, and create a mechanism to distinguish between legitimate projects and speculative ones.

The torrent of requests was influenced by the Israeli government's National Cyber Defense Bill, which defined data centers as national infrastructure in order to remove planning and construction constraints. The bill was passed by the Knesset in February.

The announcement has led data center developers in the country to reconsider plans. For example, VisionWave announced that it had dropped plans to develop a hyperscale data center in the country, citing the pause as a key factor in its decision.

Israel’s data center market is projected to grow rapidly, with $963.99bn expected to be invested in the sector by 2031, according to an estimate by Mordor Intelligence. Last month, Crusoe announced that it would invest around $10bn in data centers in Israel over the next ten to 15 years through leases.