Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 15 February 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
Commission for Regulation of Utilities Strategic Plan: Discussion
Mr. Jim Gannon:
I responded to a similar question earlier. Importantly, at that time it was a measure we were trying to bring in to ensure the security of supply in the medium-term. We indicated that we expected data centres would bring themselves to less carbon-intensive options for a number of different reasons. First, because they tend to be cheaper particularly as the carbon price increases and, second, because their environmental, social and governance mandates, which are internal corporate mandates, push them towards decarbonisation options.
Some of the dialogue we had with data centre operators indicated that they were also moving in that direction.