Warning that data centres could account for 30% of all electricity consumption by 2030 

Ireland’s ability to generate the massive energy needed to power data centres is a growing concern, as CSO analysis shows their consumption of electricity increased by 144% between 2015 and 2020.  Picture: File

Data centre consumption of electricity increased by 144% between 2015 and 2020, leading to their total electricity consumption jumping from 5% to 11% in the same period.

That is according to an analysis from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which looked at data centre electricity consumption for the first time.

Questions around data centres and Ireland’s ability to handle the massive energy needed to power them have turned into a hot political, economic, and environmental issue in the past couple of years.

Ireland had seven system alerts, previously known as amber alerts, on the electricity grid between December 2020 and October 2021, but fell short of declaring any red alerts. To put it in context, EirGrid said that between 2010 and 2019, there were 13 system alerts in Ireland overall.

The percentage of metered electricity consumed by data centres rose from 5% in 2015 to 11% in 2020, an increase of 1,783-gigawatt-hours between 2015 and 2020, the CSO said.

Quarterly metered electricity consumption by data centres increased from 290-gigawatt-hours in the first quarter of 2015 to 849-gigawatt-hours in the fourth quarter of 2020, the CSO added.

Niall Shanahan, statistician in the Environment and Climate Division of the CSO, said: “The increase in consumption was driven by a combination of existing data centres using more electricity and new data centres being added to the grid.”

Collaboration needed 

Eirgrid chief executive Mark Foley said last month there is a “sense of collaboration and joint responsibility” between the firm and the data centre community to build a resilient electricity grid.

“If an event were to occur — and, let's be clear, we’re talking about the remote possibility of an event — they have all signed up to help us and ensure that there is no situation where the lights go out,” he told pro-data centre body Host in Ireland’s webinar.

According to Dublin-based data centre and IT recruitment firm GemPool, there are 53 operational data centres in Ireland, with eight more under construction and 26 with planning approval, and are expected to double by 2025.

Senior research fellow in clean energy futures at the UCC-based MaREI centre for energy, climate and marine research, Dr Paul Deane, said Ireland is an outlier when it comes to data centre consumption.

"Ireland is unusual when it comes the amount of electricity consumed by data centres within the country. Globally the average is about 1% with some EU countries like Germany having 3% but in Ireland, it is 11%. This is due to the significant amount of data centres that we have in Ireland but also reflects the relative smaller size of our power system.

"While we have shown we can operate the power system with this level of data centres to date, the bigger concern is the projected future growth in data centres which could see 30% of national electricity demand going to data centres in 2030. If not managed correctly, this growth will require both renewable and conventional power plants to be built which will lead to higher climate emissions."