Vale of White Horse District Council has commissioned a feasibility study into a heat network serving approximately 400,000 sqm (4.3 million sq ft) of proposed data center development next to Didcot Power Station in Oxfordshire, with completion due on March 31, 2027.

Nordic Energy will run the study. According to the council's filing, it will "consider the potential combination and/or expansion of potential heat network zones identified by the National Zoning Model (NZM), by incorporating opportunities provided by adjacent data center development proposals."

Several developers have tabled projects for the site. The largest single player is Amazon Web Services, which bought the Didcot site from German energy firm RWE in July last year.

What will the study deliver?

The council has set out five overarching aims:

• Review heat network zone development opportunities ahead of heat network zoning policy
• Determine whether a heat network is viable for the site
• Establish how schemes can align with the Heat Network Zoning Regulations
• Set out a range of possible delivery models
• Give decision-makers recommendations on next steps

The work program includes assessing technical and economic feasibility of conceptual projects in the local area, identifying key heat demands, heat sources and potential energy center sites, and setting out timescales, opportunities and development risks.

The scope also requires the study to give the council a "clear and justifiable basis upon which to evaluate the full potential for heat networks in the study area, for both the short and long-term and how these may best be delivered." In plain terms, the council wants evidence, not assumptions, before committing to a build.

Why does waste heat from data centers matter?

Data center-supplied district heating has matured fastest in the Nordic countries, where operators plug into legacy district heating networks. In Finland, Microsoft has partnered with utility Fortum to supply waste heat from its first two planned facilities there. Once complete, those facilities are expected to cover around 40 percent of district heating demand in Espoo, Kauniainen and Kirkkonummi.

The UK has seen fewer deals, lacking both legacy infrastructure and incentives for data center operators. Regulation has shifted: the Energy Act 2023 established legal foundations for heat network zoning across England.

Last April, district heating firm Hemiko won selection by the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), a London Mayoral Development Corporation, to design, develop and operate a low-carbon heat network drawing waste heat from local data centers.

Didcot now tests whether that model can move beyond London. The answer arrives with the study's final report in March 2027.