Data centres: a single permit, but the 90-day window will not wait
6 min read
On 22 July 2026 Italy’s Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) published its first operational guidance on the procedure that decides how long it really takes to authorise a data centre in Italy. This is not a technicality for specialists: more than €25 billion in new-facility investment has been announced for 2026-2028, and until yesterday the average time to secure every required permit ran past two years, often three. Anyone planning, financing or tendering one of these facilities — operator, public body, system integrator — now has a procedure with a name, a maximum duration set out in law and, above all, an intermediate deadline that leaves no slack.
A bills decree that rewrites the permitting rules
Decree-Law No. 21 of 20 February 2026 — the so-called “Bills Decree”, introduced to curb the cost of electricity and gas — devotes its Article 8 to a matter that has little to do with household bills: the authorisation procedure for building, expanding and operating data centres. The converting statute, Law No. 49 of 10 April 2026 (Official Gazette No. 90 of 18 April, in force from 19 April), confirmed and strengthened that choice, going as far as naming the integration of data centres into the electricity system explicitly in the measure’s title. This is no longer a peripheral rule: it is now the legal framework that anyone building a facility above a certain power threshold has to work within.
How the PUCD works
Under the guidance just published, the new instrument is called the PUCD — the Single Procedure for issuing authorisations for data-centre projects. It works like the other single procedures designed for energy infrastructure: one application, one competent authority — whichever body already holds the environmental impact assessment (EIA) or integrated environmental authorisation, meaning the Ministry of the Environment for higher-power facilities and the relevant Region for smaller ones — and a single conference of services that gathers every required opinion (environment, landscape, cultural heritage, health, public safety) without the applicant having to chase each one separately. The maximum term for completion is ten months from the point the file is confirmed complete, extendable by a further three months only for exceptional circumstances relating to complexity, location or the scale of the project. The same package also halves ordinary EIA timescales.
The operational guidance also settles smaller details that decide an application’s fate: PEC filing for documentation under 50 MB in a single compressed file, physical delivery above that threshold; EIA and integrated environmental authorisation fees paid via two separate transfers to the State’s central treasury. The official application template and technical specifications will follow, the Ministry says, within days: the procedural framework is settled, the paperwork is not yet.
The deadline that really decides the outcome
The point that matters most for anyone planning an investment is not the length of the procedure itself, but what has to happen before it even starts. Any facility above 10 MW connects to the national transmission grid run by Terna; below that threshold, the local distributor handles it instead. The grid operator issues an STMG — the general minimum technical solution that forms the grid connection estimate — and from that moment the applicant has a peremptory 90-day window to submit the complete EIA dossier. This is not an indicative deadline: missing it means the connection request lapses, the applicant loses its place in the queue, and goes back to the end of the line behind whoever applied next. To make the transitional phase more workable, the guidance allows a project to initially specify a temporary medium-voltage solution, to be integrated once Terna’s definitive high-voltage solution arrives — real room for manoeuvre, but it does not move the 90-day deadline. It only changes what you can afford not to have ready yet.
What changes for those who design, tender or certify
The operational implication is clear: the EIA dossier is not prepared after requesting the grid connection, it is prepared beforehand or in parallel. Anyone who reaches the STMG stage without the environmental studies, impact assessments and technical report on the connection works already in hand risks burning through the 90-day window over an administrative delay, not a substantive problem. That applies to the final applicant, but also to whoever designs the cabling, cooling and power supply of the facility — the work we follow from site survey through to certification — because decisions on availability class and redundancy and on high-density cabling need to be made early: changing them once the application is in often means starting the completeness check all over again.
A second track, still under way
The single procedure is not the only front open. On 24 February 2026 the Chamber of Deputies approved the bill reclassifying data centres as national strategic infrastructure, now before the Senate: if confirmed, it would add a further channel — a special government commissioner — for projects above one billion euro in investment. It is a piece still in motion, worth watching rather than assuming in a specification.
What to do
- Before requesting the STMG from the grid operator, check that your EIA documentation is ready, or nearly so: the 90 days start there, not from whenever you decide to begin writing it.
- Identify the competent authority — Ministry or Region — early, based on the facility’s power rating: it changes who you deal with, not the substance of the procedure.
- Check whether the project exceeds the 10 MW threshold: above it, the connection runs through Terna; below it, through the local distributor, on different timescales.
- Consider the temporary medium-voltage option if the definitive high-voltage connection is not yet ready: it is allowed, but must be stated in the project.
- Track the publication of the official application template and technical specifications announced by MASE: without that paperwork, the formal application cannot yet be filed.
- Keep an eye on the progress of the bill on data centres as strategic infrastructure through the Senate: it could still change the thresholds and channels available.
The bottom line
For the first time, investing in an Italian data centre comes with a timeframe set out in law, not just a political promise: ten months, not two or three years. But that timeframe is only earned by meeting a deadline that arrives earlier, quietly, with the STMG — and it leaves no room for being caught unprepared. Designing a data centre today means having the technical groundwork ready before even requesting the grid connection: it is the work we do for our data-centre clients, from structured cabling through to certification, working alongside whoever is handling the authorisation procedure.
Do you need to plan a new data centre, or secure the timeline of a project already under way? Contact us: free site survey and quote, to align cabling and certification with the real timescales of the permit.