Ireland's electricity infrastructure policy rewiring should be a matter of public debate

Irish Times

2 days ago

Last month, one of Ireland's most significant policy statements this century regarding our infrastructure was published by the
Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment
.
The
policy statement on private wires
- a major change to our
electricity infrastructure
, allowing for private lines to be constructed and connected between private generators and energy sources to users - will soon form a significant part of the government's agenda.
The prospect of private wires offers a number of solutions in a number of areas.
For example, it will potentially expand (private) electricity infrastructure for charging
electric vehicles
. By far the most interesting recent design development in this realm is the German company Rheinmetall's Curb Charger, which fits flush into a pavement, meaning no obtrusive charging arms or ugly charging stations that add to street clutter.
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These policy changes will also allow data centres to bypass the electricity grid and connect directly to generators and energy sources such as wind and solar farms, thus fuelling themselves independently.
This is policy that
Big Tech
seeks, and forms part of government strategy to support data centres. It can also be framed as a solution, albeit reactionary, to the pressure on our electricity grid.
Data centres consume 22 per cent of all metered electricity in Ireland, representing a 531 per cent rise in a decade. As AI takes hold, the energy needed to power data centres is going to increase in ways that are almost difficult to conceptualise.
[
Electricity storage policy and 'private wires' regime to speed up renewables delivery
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]
Amazon and Meta, with foresight, have already privately built wind farms, or wholesale bought the entire energy output of Ireland's largest solar farms. The reality is, energy infrastructure and the amount of power needed to fuel data centres is not expanding as quickly as AI and the data centres that run it are.
Therefore, depending on how you view things, governments need to be dynamic in their policy responses, or the data centre tail is now wagging the electricity infrastructure dog.
Remember, the 'cloud' is not a cloud. It's physical, and takes the form of gigantic, energy-ravenous buildings that pockmark the landscape around Dublin.
There are plenty of questions about this next phase of the data centre boom in Ireland. Photographer: Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/ Bloomberg
As a nation, Ireland is now known as the data centre capital of the world. Unfortunately, we are not the energy infrastructure capital of the world. The grid could not take the number of connections being demanded. Something had to be done, because the die was cast.
Right now, the majority of Ireland's data centres (and there are plenty more planned) are concentrated around the Greater Dublin Area, due to electricity and fibre infrastructure practical realities. This has put huge pressure on the grid, particularly in the capital, leading to a series of rolling tensions between the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), ESB Networks, local authorities, ministers, central government, Big Tech, the data centre industry, and their lobbying ecosystem.
But what if the grid didn't matter? Data centres in the Dublin area that were denied grid connections may now have another option at powering themselves. Land bought up by data centre companies may now be viable for development. But what if Dublin was no longer the most convenient location for data centres? In the future, it will make more sense for data centres to be located closer to where offshore wind comes ashore.
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Cabinet approves scenarios for firms to build private electricity lines in Ireland
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So what if data centres could bypass both the grid and capital, and connect to energy sources via private wires and power themselves independently, anywhere? And what are the consequences of data centres potentially moving away from the Greater Dublin Area?
We have already encountered many consequences regarding the first part of the data centre boom: the significant proportion of our metered electricity use and the ensuing grid capacity and connection issues. What will a new phase of the boom bring?
Some of those consequences may begin to be felt in rural Ireland. The same month the Irish government published their policy statement, a cartoon by Lynn Hsu ran in The New Yorker, showing a father and son standing before a vast field. The caption read, 'One day, son, this farmland will be yours to sell to a tech company building a data centre'.
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Ireland's electricity grid struggles with increased supply from renewables
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Unlocking agricultural land for data centre development is an emerging matter of contention in the US. For example, Meta is building the largest data centre in the western hemisphere in rural Louisiana on what used to be soybean fields.
Back in Ireland, Amazon and Bord na Móna have already announced a 'strategic collaboration', welcoming Amazon Web Services to Bord na Móna's 'Eco Energy Park'. Amazon also has a power purchase agreement with Derrinlough Windfarm in Offaly. Is rural Ireland ready for more?
Building hyperscale data centres and the energy infrastructure to fuel them privately, obviously means buying land. Would an expansion into rural Ireland be met with enthusiasm by land-owning (and selling) farmers? What are the zoning implications? Will this be framed as investment in rural Ireland when data centres do not provide significant employment and the real jobs in the companies that own them are far away? Will rural grassroots organising resist industrial development? Or will data centres remain concentrated in Dublin, Meath, Louth, and Wicklow?
There are plenty of questions about this next phase of the data centre boom in Ireland these policy changes will instigate. But at the very least, our electricity infrastructure policy being rewired should be a matter of public debate.