Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

We are engaging with GNI on this issue. It flagged to us that, from the time that we put in place the new connection policy on the electricity network, which would have precluded many new projects from signing up to the electricity network, it started seeing increased requests for data centre connections to the gas network on the basis that data centres would operate their own gas-fired generation on site. GNI flagged to us that this could create a much higher demand profile on the gas network. We are engaging with it on what the best way of managing that is. We are in the middle of what is called a price control, namely, the five-year network review. We are in the middle of planning what is needed in terms of investment over the next five years. We will clearly prioritise for GNI that new generation facilities that will provide security of supply to all customers on the island must be prioritised in terms of gas network capacity. With GNI, we are also examining the implications of the new Government statement on data centres.

I cannot remember the wording but a concern was raised around islanded data centres, which is what we are referring to here. We are looking at how that might be addressed.

Most importantly, our focus is first on security of supply. We need the capacity for gas generation. Second, we also need to look at the implications for the carbon sectoral emissions limits. There is a point at which we have to look at what impact demand is having on those sectoral emissions limits. There is a bit more work to be done but we are engaging with GNI on that.