Data centres could be offered discounted gas, under new plans being considered by a State agency. 

Planning permission for 17 new data centres is currently being considered and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities is considering what impact their approval would have on energy supplies. 

One proposal is for the data centres to be offered cheap gas - but with a significant catch; in return, when gas demand is high nationally, their gas supply could be turned off. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, ESRI economist Muirin Lynch said the topic is complex. 

“There is a massive mismatch between the increasing demand on the energy side from large energy users, particularly data centres and the lack of supply,” she explained. 

“Now, we've seen this for a number of years now on the electricity side; this is the first instance of it beginning to show up on the gas side.

“Now, it's really important to try to tease things out here; on the one hand, we're getting massive increase in energy usage, it was mostly electricity up until now, but now it's gas as well from these data centres.”

Ms Lynch continued that Ireland’s gas infrastructure is “simply not where it should be”. 

“We just simply can't guarantee the supply,” she said. 

“So, the idea is, given that we can't guarantee the supply, we're going to ask the large gas users who aren't generating electricity to switch off when we don't have enough gas going.”

Ms Lynch added the fairness of switching off data centres’ gas supply in exchange for cheaper supply is something companies will have to consider. 

“In that context, one would imagine it is fair enough that if you are buying access to gas, that might be turned off,” he said. 

“It's fair enough that you're going to pay a cheaper price; the question is how much cheaper? 

“That's something we don't know yet, that hasn't been part of the proposal yet.”

Main image: A data centre. Picture by: Sven Hoppe/Alamy.com.