A potential roadmap for energy usage in Ireland’s data centres

By Brendan Marren, head of distributed energy for Ireland at Centrica Business Solutions. Who explores how tackling Ireland’s data centre energy dilemma will create a roadmap to a future-proofed energy infrastructure for the entire country.

Every second, another 127 devices are connected to the internet and, as a result, the amount of information we store digitally is on an exponential upward curve.

This is great news if you are one of Ireland’s many data centre operators as the demand for services continues to rise.

But data storage is energy-intensive and the industry’s power needs are growing just as fast as the sector itself. Some estimates have it accounting for more than a fifth of global electricity demand by 2025.

Data Centres must also be feeling the significant, if hopefully short-lived, impact of Covid-19. BT Ireland recently said that traffic on some of its network platforms had increased by more than 50 percent in March – no doubt a consequence of mass home-working and increased use of streaming services.

Ireland currently has 54 data centres, using around 1.4 terrawatt hours of electricity each year – the equivalent of 300,000 homes. This number will almost double in the next few years, putting huge strain on an energy network that is already struggling to keep pace with demand.

At the same time, Ireland faces fines of more than €250 million for missing the EU’s 2020 emissions targets – a price that will only steepen if it fails to meet future deadlines as well. Against this backdrop, the increasing energy demands of electricity-hungry industries like data centres are a significant concern.

This puts Ireland and its data centres at a tipping point. On the one hand, the national energy infrastructure can no longer supply the energy that is needed. On the other, there is intense pressure to produce electricity cleanly.

Turning challenge into opportunity

Data centres are hugely dependant on a reliable energy supply, so operators are already taking steps to reduce their reliance on power from the centralised grid.

On-site energy production has always been part of data centre design, often in the form of back-up generators so they can offer their clients guaranteed uptime in the event of grid disruption. But more and more, technologies such as natural gas generators are fulfilling a frontline function they weren’t necessarily intended for originally – supplementing a data centre’s primary energy needs.

Exponentially increasing energy need means relying on the grid for their supply has become unviable for data centres. Consequently, we are likely to see them producing a large portion of their own energy themselves in the near future, taking advantage of a much broader set of on-site energy technologies. This will include smart management that can monitor energy use, renewable forms of generation, and battery storage that enables a business to store the energy it produces on-site so that it can be deployed when supply is low or demand is high.

This more self sufficient approach to energy management, and the technoloy that will facilitate it, is a blue-print for how the country as a whole will need to produce its energy in the future to ensure that the national infrastructure is truly sustainable.

Decentralised: the key to carbon neutrality

Now that Ireland has set a 2050 deadline for carbon-neutrality, the country will have to move sustainable low-emission power systems. This will see the current approach of relying on a small number of large, centralised and fossil-fuelled power stations to meet all of the country’s energy needs become outdated.

Effectively deploying the clean technologies, like solar panels and wind farms, needed to meet the 2050 deadline requires a more sophisticated approach, one where a far larger number of sources provide energy which is then intelligently managed to account for peaks and troughs in production, ensuring a consistent supply.

A decentralised system, where businesses and homes generate the energy they need themselves on their premises is crucial. Not only will energy self-reliance pave the way to businesses generating their own clean electricity, but spreading demand over a much wider range of sources will significantly reduce strain on the centralised power grid. This will be essential as the national infrastructure becomes more dependant on power sources that are less consistent than coal or gas – such as wind and solar.

A roadmap for Ireland’s energy future

The growth of the data centre industry is only going to increase as the world becomes more digitally connected and so will the strain this puts on Ireland’s centralised energy system. The solution to this problem – more power generated renewably on-site by data centres themselves – is also the answer to the country’s long-term energy challenges: increasing demand and the drive towards carbon neutrality. It demonstrates how a decentralised power network is achievable nationwide.

Businesses’ focus is rightly elswhere at the moment, but the current global challenge we’re all facing won’t stop energy efficency and carbon netrualilty from being a priority in the long term. All organisations should take note of the approach to generating and managing energy being developed by Ireland’s data centres and consider how similar processes and technologies could be adopted in the future.

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