INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE POWERED BY THE DCA
Powering the future of data centres
Tony Whittle , Managing Director , Enel X UK & I , discusses some of the ways data centre operators around the world can satisfy the competing demands of alleviating pressure on the grid , particularly as they face the mounting pressure of operating sustainably .
Overcoming challenges to enable the transition to renewable energy and address growing energy demand are priorities for many governments , regulators , grid operators and energy users around the world . Large energy users like data centres are often cited as contributing to increased energy use and grid instability , however , taking a fresh look at the opportunities available to them shows that they can be a very effective part of the solution .
Data centres have come under the microscope of energy regulators , especially in those regions that have successfully attracted clusters of data centre operators , resulting in a surge in power demand . Regulators in European data centre hotspots , including Frankfurt , Amsterdam and Dublin , have all taken steps in recent years to control the growth of new data centre construction projects .
In November 2021 , following a public consultation , Ireland ’ s Commission for Regulation of Utilities ( CRU ) published the CRU Direction to the System Operators related to Data Centre grid connection processing . Instead of proposing an outright ban on new data centre construction , the CRU directions proposed a case-by-case evaluation based on :
• The location of the centre and its region in the electricity system
• The data centre ’ s ability to generate and / or store energy greater than its demand
• The ability to be flexible in its demand by reducing consumption if requested to do so
Up to this point , Eirgrid , the state-owned electric power transmission operator in Ireland , was mandated to attempt to find a grid connection for any entity that applied for that connection . The interesting change from the CRU paper was that Eirgrid could now reject grid connections .
Subsequently , in January 2022 , an announcement from Eirgrid , took a harder line than that proposed by the CRU essentially stating that no new data centre connection requests in the Dublin area could be facilitated until 2028 due to severe electricity capacity constraints . The decision does not impact centres where connection agreements are already in place but , for others , it effectively acts as a moratorium on new data centre development in the Dublin region for the foreseeable future .
Data centre operators around the world are now asking themselves how they can satisfy the competing demands of alleviating pressure on the grid , enabling www . intelligentdatacentres . com
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