Data centres accounted for 23% of all Ireland's electricity usage last year, new data shows 

Data centres accounted for almost a quarter of total electricity used last year, CSO figures show

Total residential consumption of electricity, including both urban and rural dwellings, accounted for 28% of usage.

The total metered electricity consumed by data centres in Ireland increased by 10%, with the facilities accounting for nearly a quarter of all electricity used last year, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.

According to the data, data centres consumed 7,663 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity last year — up from the 6,973 GWh in 2024. The percentage share of total metered electricity consumption used by data centres rose to 23% in 2025 — up from 22% in 2024.

In 2015, data centres accounted for just 5% of total electricity used.

Overall, there was just under 33,000 GWh of electricity consumed in Ireland during 2025 — an increase of 3.4% compared with the year prior. Commercial and industrial customers were responsible for 72% of total metered electricity consumption.

Large energy users, which includes significant data centres, accounted for the largest overall share of total consumption at 33% in 2025. Their annual usage rose 9% from 2024 to reach 10,812 GWh.

Total residential consumption of electricity, including both urban and rural dwellings, accounted for 28% of usage. Urban residential consumption hit 5,954 GWh last year, with rural residential consumption hitting 3,121 — a modest increase of 1.4% when combined.

The 2025 figure is 2.5% lower than the peak residential consumption of 9,305 GWh in 2021.

Dublin’s postal districts recorded the highest proportion of residential consumption in 2025 at 19%, followed by Cork at 12%.

The CSO said while households drive massive seasonal spikes in the winter months due to heating and lighting, the data centres consumption tends to increase with every quarter, with a slowdown in the first quarter of the year, as was observed in 2024 and 2025.

Electricity consumption from standalone electric car charging points increased by 42% from 33GWh in 2024 to 47 GWh in 2025. From 2016 to 2018, electricity consumption by stand-alone charge points was below half a gigawatt hour.

Further development of data centres in Ireland had effectively stalled as the industry awaited regulations from the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) which were eventually published in December last year.

Under its new electricity connection policy for data centres, the facilities will need to meet at least 80% of their annual energy demand from new renewable electricity projects, but will get a six-year lead-in time to develop them, and they will have to provide generation or storage capacity to help supply electricity back to the wholesale market.

Operators like Eirgrid and ESB Networks will also have to consider where a data centre is being proposed for and if the energy demand in that area is already constrained in deciding if they can accommodate it.

Under what is currently contracted for, Eirgrid forecasts suggest that the data centre sector will continue to grow in Ireland. Between 2023 and 2034, the electricity demand for data centres is forecast to have doubled.

Under the Eirgird assessment, data centres are expected to take up 31% of the country’s electricity capacity by 2034.