Underground law: Russia will simplify the construction of communications for data centers

The construction of infrastructure for data centers will not require the approval of land owners. They will only be notified about the work, and they will be carried out underground, follows from the draft roadmap for the development of data centers (data centers), prepared by the Analytical Center under the government. Now, due to the resistance of at least one owner, it is impossible to establish communications, market participants say. The new rule will reduce the time required for their preparation by 30-40%, reduce legal costs and compensation costs, experts say.

What problems do data center infrastructure builders face?

Data center builders often cannot connect high-voltage cable lines and communication channels to them. This is due to the resistance of real estate owners and engineering infrastructures through which communications must pass. This follows from the draft roadmap "Data Processing Center" prepared by the Analytical Center under the government, which was reviewed by Izvestia.

The laying of communication and power supply lines in densely populated areas affects dozens of land plots and linear objects, while the Civil Code requires the consent of all their owners, the document says.

"The refusal or evasion of even one of them blocks the entire project. Operators are forced to enter into protracted legal disputes over the establishment of an easement (the right to limited use of someone else's land. — Ed.), redesign the routes with a significant lengthening of the route or pay unreasonably excessive compensation," the roadmap says.

The problem can be solved if the norm obliging to collect the consent of the owners of all land plots surrounding the data center disappears from the Civil Code before starting construction of the energy and telecom infrastructure, the authors of the document believe. This procedure will not apply to cases of work affecting the surface of the earth, for example, when trenching is open. In situations where the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) method is used, in which the surface is not exposed, the permission of the owners will not be required — they are only supposed to be notified of the work being carried out.

According to the developers of the roadmap, these changes will reduce the time for pre-design preparation of communications for data centers by 30-40%, as well as reduce legal costs and compensation costs for land owners.

The Ministry of Finance is aware of the elaboration of such initiatives, the ministry told Izvestia.

"The Ministry believes that they require additional analysis and discussions with interested departments and the industry," they noted.

Izvestia sent a request to the office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko, who oversees the development of the IT industry in the government.

Such initiatives are being discussed in the context of a broader agenda to accelerate the development of digital infrastructure in Russia, said Dmitry Vysokogorsky, NTI expert on promising and new energy sources. The offer is relevant against the background of growing demand for computing power, a course towards technological sovereignty and the need to rapidly increase the capacity of domestic data centers, he believes.

— In practice, builders of communications for data centers face several systemic problems. The highway is several kilometers long and can cross dozens of land plots owned by individuals and legal entities, municipalities and the state — each requires separate approval. Some copyright holders use the situation as a lever of pressure to obtain excessive compensation or block construction," the expert says.

According to market participants, obtaining approvals from all copyright holders on the highway can take an average of six to 18 months, and in conflict cases — more than two years, he told Izvestia. This is comparable to the construction period of the data center itself.

Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily, agrees that eliminating the need to obtain the consent of the owners of all land plots through which communication and power supply lines pass to the data center can shorten the time for their installation by 30-40%. This can really reduce the costs of builders associated with litigation and compensation payments, he believes.

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What will accelerate the construction of communications for data centers

The timing of the data center launch largely depends on the connection to communications. Coordination of routes with land owners remains one of the main weaknesses and can stretch projects for months, while increasing their cost, said Konstantin Stepanov, Director of Development and Operation of RTK data centers.

— We are increasingly faced with the limitations of urban infrastructure — the congestion of existing collectors, especially when laying electric lines, as well as lengthy approvals for new HDD crossings. In these conditions, simplification of procedures can significantly accelerate the commissioning of new capacities," he believes.

In parallel with the acceleration of access to land, it is necessary to strengthen the requirements for infrastructure accounting — to develop unified registries, digital fixation of trails and monitoring the relevance of data, the expert listed.

The problem is related to the fact that many data centers are being built near large agglomerations, and modern data centers are huge data factories, said Alkhas Mirzabekov, CEO of the USC operator. According to him, in the United States and China, "infrastructure corridors" are being created for these large-scale projects and mechanisms for expediting the issuance of federal connection permits are being developed. We are talking about public easements, a civilized mechanism for the seizure or use of land from private owners in the interests of the country's development, as well as a mechanism for creating a unified national 3D map of underground utilities, he said.

According to him, obtaining permits from each owner leads to lagging behind the leading technological countries, since the contract with each landowner requires long-term coordination.

— Someone easily meets halfway, someone does not coordinate the work on their site under any guise or sets deliberately inflated prices, — he pointed out. — Sometimes it happens that from the point of view of the availability of energy capacities in a particular location, the place for the construction of a data center is ideal, but due to the inability to lay power lines, the project has to be changed and the facility has to be moved.

At the same time, issues related to simplified access to land, the choice of locations and the creation of "infrastructure corridors" need to be carefully worked out based on the experience of leading countries in this industry, taking into account Russian legislative practice, Alkhas Mirzabekov added.

Most often, such problems arise with communication channels, VTB told Izvestia.

— Banks, as a rule, need backup channels that should approach the building from different sides, but it is not always possible to organize such channels due to the presence of neighbors. In this case, the problem may be not only the unwillingness of the owners to give permission to lay the cable, but also simply to find all the owners to obtain a permit. Having an official mechanism to resolve these situations will definitely make life easier for banks," the bank's press service noted.

According to Dmitry Vysokogorsky, in order to simplify the task for builders of communications for data centers, it is necessary to adopt a number of legislative changes. In particular, to consolidate a simplified regime of public easement for digital infrastructure facilities, establish clear deadlines and procedures for notifying owners during underground HDD laying, and introduce mandatory pre-trial mediation in case of disputes with a clear deadline, he listed.

Also, according to the expert, it is necessary to create a unified register of data center infrastructure routes, establish a formula for calculating compensation to owners, eliminating the possibility of speculative overstatement — for example, linked to the cadastral value of the site and the depth of the communication. At the same time, it is important to preserve the basic guarantees for owners: the right to information, reasonable compensation and judicial protection in case of real damage.