Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 16 July 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy

Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector

2:00 am

Mr. Nicholas Tarrant:

There are two strategies set out by Government around digitalisation and decarbonisation, and both of them need investment. A data centre direction was issued by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, back in November 2021. That set certain criteria around future data centres connecting. It consulted on a proposed decision about our direction back in February of this year. We will await the outcome of that. However, when we published our business plan in November of last year for price review, PR, 6 we made assumptions based on the current connected or contracted data centres. If there is Government policy around connecting more additional infrastructure, my assessment is that additional infrastructure will be needed to cater for any kind of further growth. We have, as Mr. Marley described it, put in investment based on projections around demands and needs, particularly in key areas of the network that need high-voltage substations and other investment.

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