Last week, Ireland edged ever closer to nationwide power cuts when Eirgrid, the national electricity grid operator, issued a “system alert”, warning that electricity supplies were tight. While the alert did not mean an immediate interruption to power supplies, it was a stark reminder of how little electricity this country has in reserve if something goes wrong.
The alert came less than a fortnight after the Government produced a revised statement on the role of data centres in Ireland in which it acknowledged the need to better manage the growth of these facilities by driving down their energy burden.
Data centres already consume 14 per cent of Ireland’s electricity supply, more than all rural housing, at 12 per cent, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO). These centres are now on track to consume about a third of all Irish electricity by the end of this decade.
But we’re already in the middle of an energy crisis and, as we face into a winter with potential energy shortages, how sustainable are these centres in the long run?
And in the short term, how is high energy consumption by these centres affecting our daily lives?
“The price of metered electricity is all based on supply and demand — demand goes up, the price goes up,” Irish Times columnist Una Mullally told the In the News podcast. “The primary driver of demand for electricity in Ireland is data centres. The Government is effectively subsidising this electricity demand for data centres while consumers are paying huge prices for electricity and companies are making huge profits.
“Is there a more fundamental thing in terms of Government functioning than keeping the lights on?” asked Mullally. “That’s a real issue that Europe is facing into this winter, and if so much electricity is being used by data centres, while people are being told to turn off lights in their hallways, I think it will start to land.”
Today, on In the News: as concerns mount over electricity shortages and nationwide blackouts, should more be done to regulate this country’s data centre boom?
In the News is presented by Sorcha Pollak and Conor Pope and produced by Declan Conlon and Suzanne Brennan.
