CAN IRELAND CONTINUE to roll out the red carpet for data centres while we struggle to meet our climate action targets and worry about the certainty of energy supply?
It’s a question that has certainly concentrated minds since it emerged recently that data centres around the country now consume the same amount of electricity as the total number of urban dwellings, or almost twice that of all rural homes combined.
The figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) should serve as an urgent wake-up call for the Government. They show that the percentage of metered electricity consumed by data centres rose from 5% in 2015 to 18% in 2022. Electricity consumption by data centres was up by 31% between 2021 and 2022. The increase since 2015 was a staggering 400%.
Meanwhile, households reduced their electricity use by 9%. This drop has been attributed to the post-Covid gradual return to the office, as well as consumers’ efforts to bring down skyrocketing energy bills. However, as high demand is a key driver of energy costs, soaring consumption by data centres is pushing up the price of electricity for all of us.
The Government has dismissed previous warnings that a surge in electricity consumption by data centres could rise to 30% by 2030. Worryingly, the latest CSO statistics indicate that we are on course to meet or even exceed that figure.
When it comes to reducing our energy consumption, individual households are again being asked to do all the heavy lifting.
Responsibility for meeting our climate action targets should not fall on individual domestic customers while the Government turns a blind eye to voracious electricity consumption by data centres.
On the same day that the CSO figures were released, the fragility of Ireland’s energy supply was also laid bare. EirGrid issued its first amber warning of the year due to low levels of wind power being generated in the electricity system. Reduced levels of solar power and outages at several generators were also blamed for the alert. We can expect to see further warnings issued when winter approaches and the demand for electricity rises.
Like many things in Ireland, it is lack of regulation and oversight that lie at the heart of the problem. While we recognise that data centres are needed in our growing economy to cater for the tech environment we have created, they must be efficient, properly managed and regulated – something that is not happening at the moment.
A single entity – possibly a strengthened Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) – should manage this process. As things stand, each Government department, State body or local authority deals with separate components and, unbelievably, the CRU does not even have a list or register of data centres.
This was evident when the CSO was forced to collect information on data centres using a variety of methods, including internet searches and an examination of customers in business parks with high annual electricity consumption.
The Social Democrats believe there should be a pause on further data centre connections until a strategic analysis has been carried out by the Government to ensure that Ireland can cope with the pressures we are seeing on energy demand. We also need clear definitions as to what constitutes a data centre and a full analysis of their impact on our climate change targets.
We are already fighting an uphill battle in this area. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned that Ireland is on course to miss its 2030 climate targets by a considerable distance. Even if all the measures in the Climate Action Plan are implemented, the agency predicts that the Government will only achieve a 29% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade – well short of the legally binding target of 51%.
Despite this, there is no appetite within Government for a cap on data centres. Instead, we have received platitudes from ministers about making them more efficient or vague suggestions about powering them differently.
We are expected to believe that we have capacity for more data centres while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gasses – yet there is no detail as to how we will square that particular circle.
There has been a de facto moratorium on data centres in the wider Dublin area since 2022, but we know there are several being constructed around the country and others with planning permission that don’t yet have grid access.
But how many will be enough? What is our limit? And who determines who gets priority in an energy supply crisis?
In the push for Ireland to become the data centre capital of the world, the IDA has succeeded in enticing some of the biggest global tech companies to set up here. The approach has undoubtedly sustained tens of thousands of jobs and led to bumper corporation tax receipts. But in its eagerness to please, the Government has over-promised something it ultimately cannot deliver on – security of supply. This is something that international companies have already expressed concern about. It will be difficult to incentivise further foreign direct investment if we are unable to keep the lights on.
The lack of transparency surrounding the operation of data centres is troubling. In a recent parliamentary question, I asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to outline how information on the collation of data centre energy consumption is used. In his response, Minister Eamon Ryan cited EU law, saying member states have an obligation to preserve the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information. As such, he said that specific detailed information on energy usage for a particular sector cannot be disclosed. This is on top of the Department of Enterprise and Employment not being able to provide details of the number of jobs directly linked to data centres.
Not having strategic oversight of data centres is inexcusable. Failure to plan for their future growth will come back to haunt us if we don’t have an honest discussion now about how many more we can take.
Jennifer Whitmore is a Social Democrats TD for Wicklow and party spokesperson on energy, climate action and biodiversity.
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