Call for halt on proposed new data centres

AMID threats of power cuts as the national electricity grid comes under severe pressure, People Before Profit climate spokesperson, Bríd Smith TD, has called for the government to implement an immediate halt on any proposed new data centre connections to the grid.

The TD said: “The most urgent task this state has now is ensuring the power needs of ordinary people are met this winter. There is a concentrated effort to muddy the water about causes and who is to blame, but the elephant in the room is the blind insistence of government ministers to continue facilitating more and more data centre connections – it must stop.”

The TD said eight new data centres are planned to be connected to the national grid in the coming years, adding another 1.5 GW of demand – more than three times the proposed emergency generation plant that the government has ordered.

There are some 70 data centres in Ireland, a significant percentage of them located in South Dublin County.