Europe’s largest energy network operator, E.ON, has announced plans to spend around €48 billion ($56.5bn) over the next four years on grid modernization to meet rising energy demands from the AI data center sector and energy transition.

The announcement will see E.ON increase its five-year plan by approximately €6bn ($7bn), for the period 2024 to 2028.

“We are accelerating the expansion of the grids, the consistent digitalization of the energy system, and introducing new solutions for our customers,” said CEO Leonhard Birnbaum.

E.ON operates an energy distribution network that spans approximately 1.6 million kilometers (994,193 miles) of electricity and gas lines across nine European countries. Serving nearly 47 million customers, its primary grid operations are concentrated in Germany, but extend to Sweden, the Czech Republic, and several other Central European countries.

The network operator provides a range of specialized energy services for the data center market. This includes “time-to-power” solutions such as on-site energy generation. The most notable example is its on-site power deal inked with CyrusOne in June of last year. The agreement saw the two companies partner on an on-site natural gas-powered system at Cyrus’ FRA7 data center in Frankfurt, Germany, which is expected to add a further 61MW of capacity to the data center.

Electricity networks across Europe are being increasingly strained as load projections continue to soar. This has been compounded by the average age of most grid infrastructure across the continent, with approximately 40 percent of European distribution grids being around 40 years old.

According to the European Commission, electricity consumption across the EU is expected to increase by around 60 percent by 2030, requiring more than €584bn ($688.4bn) in investments across the continent.