You have so much availability of power, Russ Barker Product and Service Sales Director, Vertiv Ireland

The recent consultation published by the Commission for Regulation Utilities (CRU) is another warning of the major impact data centres are having on the Irish electricity system. With mounting concerns that the nation could face rolling blackouts, the CRU says it’s clear that “measures must be implemented in order to encourage data centres to address some of these risks.” Ronan talks to Russ Barker Product and Service Sales Director, Vertiv Ireland.

Russ talks about what Vertiv Ireland does, how data centres can pass energy back to the grid, moving to a renewable grid, the huge concentration of data centres in Dublin, data centres clusters, the CRU report, data migration into data centres, the data centres trend, and video streaming usage.

More about the CRU report:

The report recognises that the increasing drive to renewables is resulting in a less resilient and fault-tolerant grid, and that data centres consume vast amounts of electricity. The CRU is essentially looking to drive legislation to make sure demand side services – where you can load shed when necessary and provide frequency response – are in place.

But while the current narrative is that data centres are placing a huge load on the existing electricity supply at a time when Ireland is trying to decarbonise, there are also data centres with advanced Uninterruptible Power Supply technologies can that actually support grid services and be part of helping Ireland meet its target of 70% renewables by 2030.