IDA removed outage warning from EirGrid submission

The IDA has rescinded a power outage warning from a subscriber order to advise EirGrid on the management of future demand for the electricity grid.

An earlier version of the filing filed with the Ministry of Projects, Trade and Employment warned that the risk included “an increased potential for frequent system alerts and system emergencies with electricity customers potentially losing power at times this year.”

However, according to internal emails released to RTÉ News under Freedom of Information, the IDA urged that « electricity customers may lose power at times this year » be removed from the submission and did not appear in the final version sent to EirGrid.

The document was submitted to EirGrid in June 2021, at a time when concerns about energy security were rising.

Last year, EirGrid invited presentations on Shaping Our Electricity’s Future analysis which aims to plan a move to generate 70% of our energy needs from renewable sources by 2030.

The focus of the policy is a plan on how to meet the growing demands of data centers and large energy users.

These demands strained the network as it required very large amounts of continuous electricity.

Earlier this week, EirGrid confirmed that it will not connect any other data centers in Dublin for the foreseeable future.

It says the Greater Dublin area is restricted and any new data center applications will only be considered for other parts of the country on a case-by-case basis.

There are concerns about energy security and the high consumption of electricity in data centers.

EirGrid has issued seven amber alerts in the last 12 months warning of issues with the power supply.

In documents released to RTÉ News, it was revealed that IDA also requested a change from describing data centers as « high-load single connections » to « stable and highly predictable connections ».

While the submission warned of capacity constraints in the Dublin area, reference to this was removed « as a result of demand primarily from data centers » from the final submission – also at the request of the IDA.

In the joint document, the Ministry of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the International Development Association said they continue to see data centers bring in significant capital investment, new export services, and secondary support capabilities.