Finland's power grid is bracing for a 40% surge in demand as data centers line up for connection.

Fingrid Oyj said Friday that electricity demand could climb as much as 40% in the next five years, with planned data centers leading the rise. Heat-producing boiler installations and energy storage projects are also adding to the upswing.

The Helsinki-based grid operator said on its website that the surge in interest has clogged its queue for grid connection reviews. If everything in the pipeline gets built, consumption would end up as much as 40% above last year's level.

By mid-October, data center projects amounting to more than 5 gigawatts had secured formal grid-connection agreements, including distribution-level hookups. That total slightly exceeds the roughly 4.4 gigawatts produced by Finland's five nuclear units. Boiler projects that are being built and run account for more than 3 gigawatts, though these facilities typically operate below their nameplate capacity. Energy storage proposals in the queue total almost 6 gigawatts.

Fingrid said the data center buildout is part of a broader wave across Europe and the US, where artificial intelligence and cloud computing are straining limited grid capacity. This is forcing network owners to speed up investment and intensifying the debate over who gets first access to connections.

Finland's government is working on legislation that would put critical infrastructure at the front of the line for grid access, ahead of facilities such as data centers. Separately on Thursday, it proposed stricter foreign direct investment screening, requiring permits for certain projects, including data centers of 100 megawatts and up, as well as AI and quantum-computing processing.