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New CSO data shows that there has been a 16pc jump in electricity consumption by ‘large energy users’ – which includes data centres – between 2022 and 2023.
Data centres now account for more than a fifth of electricity consumption in Ireland, according to latest figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
CSO data published today (23 July) show data centres consumed 21pc of Ireland’s metred electricity, up from 18pc in 2022 and a significant jump from the 5pc share it held in 2015.
This means data centres have now overtaken urban dwellings, which dropped one percentage point to 18pc in 2023. Meanwhile, rural dwellings kept steady at 10pc.
CSO figures also show that total electricity consumption was up 2.5pc in 2023 compared with 2022, with a notable 16pc jump in consumption by “large energy users” – which includes data centres among others. The CSO also stated that electricity consumed by data centres increased by 20pc between 2022 and 2023.
This comes in the context of increasing concerns around the pressure data centres are putting on Ireland’s grid. Data centres are expected to consume nearly a third of Ireland’s total electricity by 2026, according to an International Energy Agency report published in January.
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities issued new directions in 2021 on connection applications from data centres for electricity grid operators EirGrid and ESB Networks. These directions sought to ensure that new connection applications from a growing number of data centres do not put pressure on Ireland’s grid in a way that sees demand outstrip supply and cause blackouts.
It came soon after EirGrid predicted “electricity supply challenges” this decade in part due to the growth of large energy users such as data centres. It forecast an increase of up to 43pc in demand for electricity by 2030 and said that data centres could account for one-quarter of all power consumption by the end of the decade.
Demand for data centres has surged ever since the advent of a global AI race to build the most advanced large language models, or LLMs.
Some of the Big Tech companies building data centres in Ireland include TikTok, with one of its two Dublin-based Project Clover sites operational, and Amazon, which secured planning permission to build three new data centres in Dublin last September.
Last month, Google said it will increase its data centre capacity in Dublin through an expansion of its current Grange Castle site. The company revealed plans to build a 72,400 sq m data storage facility at the Grange Castle Business Park in Dublin 22, where it already has two data centres.
Nearly a week after this announcement, the tech giant revealed that its carbon emissions have grown by nearly 50pc compared to 2019 levels, attributing this increase to a rise in energy consumed by its data centres and supply chain emissions amid the global AI boom, as the company’s data centre electricity consumption grew by 17pc last year. However, the company also claimed that its data centres maintained a “100pc global renewable energy match”.
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