On Thursday 8 October, the Municipality of Spata–Artemida allocated 35,836 euros for the service ‘Support for the process of assessing the carrying capacity of infrastructure for the siting of data centres’. The commitment decision, with reference number 82597, is signed by the mayor, Dimitris Markou, and the Director of Financial Services, Anna Micha, and is based on a substantiated request from the Department of Environment, Green Spaces and Civil Protection dated 2 September 2026.
The amount is 28,900 euros excluding VAT, which is below the 30,000-euro threshold that allows for direct award without a tender. The budget line ‘Expenses for technical services’ started the year at €43,044.61 and was revised to €91,200; the specific line item for the design study stands at 36,000 euros, of which 164 remain after the commitment. The contract award to a specific designer has not yet been published.
What does ‘infrastructure capacity’ mean?
A data centre is, first and foremost, a burden: electricity for the servers and cooling, water and air for the cooling systems, diesel generators for backup power, and lorries during the construction phase. ‘Carrying capacity’ refers to whether an area’s HEDNO grid, roads, water supply and drainage systems can cope with this load alongside everything they already serve. The title of the service refers to ‘zoning’, that is, where such a use may be permitted, not just for projects that have already been authorised.
The Municipal Council itself has raised the issue. In its opinion on the new Special Spatial Framework for Industry and Logistics, dated 30 June 2026, it noted ‘the siting of three data centres within the Spata Municipal Unit’ amongst the cumulative pressures on the area, alongside the airport, the three Wastewater Treatment Plants, the Attica Zoological Park and the Outlet Village. He called for a specific cumulative impact assessment for the municipalities surrounding the airport and wrote that ‘the existence of the necessary public infrastructure must be a prerequisite and not a promise to be fulfilled at a later date’.
The three projects
Microsoft is building in the Spata business park, having received, on 21 September, the third revision of its planning permission for a 10,790 m² building. Opposite Smart Park, the PPC–Damac data centre is under construction, with an initial capacity of 12.5 MW. The largest is the 80 MW ‘Olive’ project by Dromeus Capital and Apto, comprising two buildings totalling over 31,000 square metres; we reported on 26 September regarding its second preliminary planning permission. The Municipal Council had unanimously rejected Olive’s environmental impact assessment twice, in September and December 2025. Its opinion was not binding: the Regional Council issued a favourable opinion and the Decentralised Administration approved the environmental conditions in January.
The residents of Christoupoli, who live next to the park, had raised precisely this question in November 2025, according to press reports: that no one had assessed the capacity of an area that already hosts an airport, shopping centres and a zoo. A year later, the local council is allocating funds for such an assessment.
What we don’t know
The request from the Environment Directorate has not been published, so we do not know exactly what the study will assess, over what timeframe, or which data from HEDNO and ADMIE it will use. We do not know whether it will inform recommendations on new planning permissions or the Local Urban Development Plan, under which the Municipality can designate land uses. A study by the Municipality does not invalidate projects that have already been granted planning permission. However, it may provide figures to support a debate that, until now, has been based on arguments. We will monitor the decision on the award of the contract.
Source: Municipality of Spata–Artemida, commitment decision ref. no. 82597/8 October 2026 (Diafania 8 October 2026); Municipal Council Decision No. 78/2026 (Diaugia 06/07/2026).
