The Electricity Authority has frozen requests to connect server farms for 140 days

According to her, it is possible to establish a server farm in a relatively short time, but the construction of power plants, the expansion of the transmission network and the development of storage facilities take years. “Demand is several steps ahead of the power sector’s ability to respond to it. This is the gap that the state must begin to close,” she says.

“If Israel wants to be a destination for investments in the field of AI, it cannot separate technology policy from energy policy,” Bitton says. “An investor wants to know not only where the land is and how much the building will cost, but whether he will have electricity available even in ten years.”

According to her, the crisis may accelerate steps that are required anyway, including expanding production capacity, strengthening the transmission network, establishing storage facilities and a more extensive integration of renewable energy.

“Israel wants to be part of the AI ​​revolution, but in order to do so, it first needs to make sure it has the infrastructure that sustains this revolution. In the end, even the most digital economy in the world still depends on electricity.”