One Microsoft Data Center Uses 1 Percent of Dutch Electricity

JAKARTA - A Microsoft data center in the north of the Netherlands uses 1.17 terawatt hours of electricity throughout 2025. This figure is equivalent to about 1 percent of the total Dutch electricity consumption in a year.

Anadolu Agency in its report on Wednesday, July 15, citing a report by the Dutch public broadcaster, NOS, which referred to the latest government data. The large facility is located near the village of Middenmeer.

According to the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics or CBS, national electricity consumption in 2025 reached 116 terawatt hours. One terawatt hour is equivalent to one billion kilowatt hours.

Data on Microsoft's data center consumption is published by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency or RVO. The data is the first to open a picture of the use of electricity by a number of large data centers in the Netherlands.

Data center electricity consumption is in the spotlight as the Dutch electricity grid is under pressure in many areas.

In 2024, around 45 data centers will use 4.2 percent of the country's total electricity consumption. This amount is equivalent to the electricity needs of around 1.9 million homes, according to CBS.

However, data on the use of electricity at each facility is not fully open. Google operates two large data centers in the Netherlands, but refuses to disclose the figures for each facility.

"We consider the electricity consumption of each data center to be sensitive business information and choose not to disclose it," a Google spokesperson said in a NOS report.

The Netherlands in recent years has restricted the construction of large data centers in various regions. However, facilities whose size is below the limit set by the government are still being built.