15 data centres awaiting decision on gas network connection
Fifteen
data centres
around the
State
have been waiting for up to three years for decisions on getting connected to the national gas grid.
It comes as Peter Lantry, managing director of data centre group
Equinix
, says a number of Irish retail data centres are nearing maximum capacity or 'going dark'. Rising demand in companies looking to locate in Ireland is outstripping the availability of data centre space, he said.
There are 11 data centres contracted to connect to the gas network, of which four are awaiting connection, according to figures provided by
Gas Networks Ireland
to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications,
Darragh O'Brien
.
As it stands, the maximum hourly load of these 11 data centres stands at 2,100 megawatts. The 15 data centres waiting for connection to the network would more than treble that demand to around 7,400 megawatts.
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Mr Lantry said the need for gas connections in data centres is often for backup power generation, giving the data centres flexibility to get off the electricity grid during power demand spikes.
In a statement, Gas Networks Ireland said it was 'not contracting any new data centre connections' beyond the 11 data centres which were contracted to connect before the publication of the Government statement on the role of data centres in Ireland's enterprise strategy in July 2022.
The State-owned company said it is 'engaging' with the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) in relation to the impact of the statement on gas connection policy and is not contracting any new connections 'pending the CRU's consultation process on large energy users connection policy, which is ongoing'.
A spokesman for the utility regulator said it is reviewing responses to the consultation process and 'hope[s] to publish the final paper along with the responses received later this year'.
Until then, the 15 data centres waiting in the queue will not receive a decision on their requests to be connected to the grid.
'Current gas demand is only a fraction of this connected capacity, with demand projected to ramp up towards contracted levels as customers build out their sites' GNI informed Minister O'Brien in March for response to a separate parliamentary question.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for O'Brien said the Government had prioritised renewable energy sources noting 'data centres that are not connected to the electricity grid and are powered mainly by on-site fossil fuel generation would not be in line with national policy..'
Equinix's Mr Lantry said the company was one of the 11 to get approval for a gas network connection. But, he said, it had been unable to build that gas connection as its application for an electricity grid connection had been 'terminated'.
Even with increased investment by companies such as Equinix into sustainable on-site energy generation, such as solar, limitations on data centres has meant that 'Ireland is no longer on the radar when it comes to companies that want to invest in this space', he said.
The spokeswoman for the Department of Energy said data centres were 'core infrastructure enabler of a technology-rich, innovative economy, which makes Ireland a location of choice for a broad range of sectors and value-added activities.'
She said Ireland had attracted the 'best data centre and tech companies in the world' but that the Government faces a 'significant challenge' to find the balance between competitiveness of industry and a sustainable and secure energy supply.
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