Electricity consumption by data centres has risen from just 5 per cent of the total generated in 2015 to 21 per cent last year, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
CSO figures show the energy consumed by the centres eclipsed the amount used by urban households in 2023, which accounted for 18 per cent of total metered electricity consumption. Rural households accounted for 10 per cent.
Quarterly metered electricity consumption by data centres increased steadily from 290 gigawatt hours in the first quarter of 2015 to 1,661 gigawatt hours in the fourth quarter of 2023, a jump of 473 per cent, the agency said.
The findings come amid an increasingly heated debate about data centres, their energy demands and whether playing host to so many of them runs counter to the State’s climate policy.
The concern is that the rapid increase in the sector’s energy requirements hinders the State’s ability to move away from fossil fuel-powered generation as demand grows faster than the State can bring renewable sources of power online.
Used to house computer storage systems, these centres are expected to account for 27 per cent of all electricity demand by 2028.
The State’s Climate Action Plan commits the Government to review its policies on data centre growth to keep it in line with emissions and renewable energy targets.
The CSO figures indicated that total metered electricity consumption was 30,600 gigawatt hours in 2023, an increase of 2.5 per cent compared with 2022.
Large energy users with “very high consumption” - a group that includes data centres - accounted for 30 per cent of the total, exceeding the combined total of urban and rural households, the CSO said. It also noted that consumption by large energy users increased by 16 per cent between 2022 and 2023 and by 151 per cent between 2015 and 2023.
The peak demand period for very large energy users occurred between 1pm and 3pm, the agency said.
Metered electricity consumption by stand-alone electric vehicles (EV) charge points rose by 38 per cent from 17 gigawatt hours in 2022 to 23 gigawatt hours in 2023.
Around 10 per cent of residential customers consumed less than 1,000 kilowatt hours in 2023 which was well below the median consumption of 3,174 kilowatt hours.
Dublin postal districts had the highest proportion of residential consumption in 2023 at 18 per cent, followed by Cork (12 per cent), Dublin county (7 per cent), Galway (6 per cent) and Kildare (5 per cent).
Median residential electricity consumption was down in every county in 2023 compared with 2022, the CSO said. Donegal, Leitrim and Mayo had the lowest median residential consumption in 2023.
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