New data centres in Ireland could need additional energy supply that is almost equal to the peak electricity demand for the entire country.
The scale of demand from “prospective” data centres in the medium term could be as high as an extra 5.8 gigawatts (GW), on top of the already-high existing energy demands of the sector.
5.8GW would equal the electricity demands of millions of households, and would be almost as high as the record peak winter electricity demand for the entire country.
The figure was reported as part of a market intelligence report carried out by EirGrid, ESB Networks and Gas Networks Ireland which was requested by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) to better understand the scale of the possible medium-term demand from new data centres.
RM Block
An initial report from the market intelligence exercise was included in a report published by the energy industry regulator, following its review of the grid connection policy for large energy users, namely data centres.
“Initial feedback from this market intelligence exercise suggests that there is potential for in the order of 5.8GW additional demand capacity required for the data centre sector in Ireland in the medium term. This is in addition to demand already contracted and would require consideration of a bespoke or plan-led approach to infrastructure development in Ireland,” the report said.
Ireland’s current record for electricity demand for the entire country, according to EirGrid, was 6.024GW, which was recorded on January 8th last. This was the first time that national electricity demand had exceeded 6GW.
The previous national peak was 5.639GW, which was recorded during a cold snap in November 2024.
[ Here’s an idea: divert the energy from data centres to heat Irish homesOpens in new window ]
The expected new demand for data centres of 5.8GW would also exceed Ireland’s entire offshore wind target of 5GW by 2030, a target the State is almost certain to miss.
Ireland has become an attractive location for data centres, the physical infrastructure centres that store data that facilitates all IT and digital services from social media, streaming, email, online shopping and large language models.
Concerns have been raised, however, about the strain that data centres are placing on Ireland’s national energy infrastructure, and their environmental impac.
Data centres made up 5 per cent of the national electricity demand in 2015, and this had grown to an estimated 25 per cent of Ireland’s electricity usage by last year. It is expected that demand for data centres will also increase as artificial intelligence becomes more dominant.
EirGrid had already forecast electricity demand from data centres would increase from 9.4 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2025 to 14.6TWh in 2034. This would be a doubling of the 2023 electricity demand from data centres, and would mean the percentage of national electricity demand consumed by the centres would rise from 22 per cent in 2024 to 31 per cent by 2034.
[ The Irish Times view on data centres: how many is too many?Opens in new window ]
The CRU has ruled that new data centres will only be able to connect to Ireland’s electricity grid if they also generate and supply power to homes and businesses.
Its decision, published on Friday, also said electricity system operators such as ESB Networks and EirGrid would have to take into account whether the data centre for which a connection has been requested is located in an area of the State where electricity supply is constrained.
