Data centres, new homes and transport will continue to stretch electricity supplies for the rest of the decade, national grid operator EirGrid predicts.
The State company, responsible for the backbone of the system that transmits electricity from suppliers to customers, calculates that demand in the Republic will grow 19 per cent to 2034.
Data centres, the Government’s target of adding 300,000 new homes by 2030, and increased use of electricity in transport and other areas will contribute to the growth in demand, according to EirGrid.
The State company believes that demand will grow strongly up to 2030 and ease over the following five years.
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EirGrid has been warning of a narrowing gap in the Republic between electricity demand and supplies for the last 10 years.
The State imports around 12 per cent of its needs from Britain, whose suppliers are lured by high Irish electricity prices.
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EirGrid also built four temporary emergency gas- and diesel-fuelled power plants, two in Dublin, one in Co Offaly and one in Co Clare, as a last resort in case of shortages.
However, it has not called on any of these plants to shore up supplies since they were completed in 2024. EirGrid did use one of the Dublin plants to deal with a fault in the system last summer.
Data centres account for about one fifth of electricity consumption in the Republic currently. EirGrid believes that figure will rise to about 30 per cent by 2030, based on the number of such facilities that plan to connect to the national grid.
[ Inside the Dublin data centres consuming an unknown amount of energyOpens in new window ]
“The residential sector remains a key area of focus for electricity demand growth as the Irish Government plans towards housing targets noted in the National Planning Framework,” says a report due to be published on Thursday.
However, the company believes that steps to save domestic energy use, including smart meters, will help ease the pressure on the system from new housing.
EirGrid maintains that the Republic will have to add power plants able to generate up to 400 megawatts (MW) of electricity to meet likely increased demand over the next 10 years. Those new power plants will be in addition to existing capacity and new facilities already in planning or under construction.
EirGrid says that future capacity auctions, the process used to attract investment in new power plants, should result in power companies building new electricity plants.
Marc Senouci, Eirgrid’s head of power system insights, acknowledged that it was crucial that the market delivered new capacity efficiently.
The company will publish its All-Island Resource Adequacy Assessment, which looks at the balance between electricity demand and supply in Ireland over 10 years, on Thursday.
Senouci pointed out that EirGrid was working on its “most ambitious” extension of the national grid.
“This includes connecting significant volumes of offshore and onshore wind, solar and conventional generation while also reinforcing the grid to enable this power to reach demand customers throughout the country,” he said.
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) last year approved plans by EirGrid and fellow State company ESB Networks to invest in the system.
