Jennifer Whitmore: Data centre boom risks households and the grid

First I just want to thank the Labour Party for this motion, it's a very important motion, it's an extensive motion and I think you know anytime we get to debate energy, climate, action and indeed the cost of living in this dull chamber, it's a very worthwhile debate to have. I will say Minister, because I've just read through the amendment that the government has put in and I understand the normal process is that the speechwriters will do the speeches but I would ask that you cast a critical eye over this because the amount of spin in this document is incredible, it really is and I think the one thing that we need to be with the public is honest when it comes to not just the risks of climate change but also the level of climate action because I think there is a real risk that if we give the impression, if government gives the impression that there's all these actions are happening, that there's all this momentum, all this change happening and it isn't actually happening, there's a huge risk with that from a climate and environmental perspective. But I would also say that this is such an important area because there is also a huge level of risk when it comes to social cohesion and we have seen that, we've seen it in Ireland to a small degree but when you look at the UK, you look at the US, you know other countries in Europe, there is a real divide in some societies and climate action is being blamed and is being utilised as the scapegoat for that divide and it's not. The reason that divide is happening is because a huge number of people feel they are being left behind, that there is a focus on the big players, the big corporates, the big businesses, they're the ones who are benefiting from high energy prices or any of the climate measures even and that there is a lot of people who are feeling very, very left behind. So when they go to blame someone, when they go to point the finger at why can't I afford my electricity, why can't I afford food, why isn't there a bus there to bring me to work, when they go to look to see who to blame, unfortunately you have elements, very bad actors in some areas that will point to climate change and say this is the reason. This is a made up issue and government is using it to essentially leave you behind. So climate action, it's not just about the environment, it's not just about living more sustainably, there is such an important element of social cohesion that needs to be dealt with in this and that's why we had all those discussions about just transition and the importance of that. That language has sort of fallen off the table to be honest, I'm sort of happy about it because I think most ordinary people would have no idea what just transition is. But ultimately when you're doing your policies you just need to make sure that people are not being left behind. So if we use, for example, how are people at the moment experiencing, how are they being impacted by data centres, the proliferation of data centres. In their real lives the way people are being impacted is through pricing. People have seen their electricity prices go up, there's a whole lot of other elements to it as well, I understand that. But data centres are absolutely increasing prices, just the demand placed on our electricity grid and on the markets is pushing up prices and we heard as recently as last week, friends of the environment had a presentation where there was a really in-depth analysis done that showed that actually household bills had gone up by €360, primarily in the space between sort of 2022-2024 and that was based on, that was purely based on the additional demand put on by data centres. We also have the costs to keeping our grid updated and robust because obviously a number of years ago there was major issues with grid security. We were looking at potentials for blackouts, brownouts and as a result we had to spend a lot of money bringing in temporary generators. That was primarily because we saw this huge increase in data centres and our grid wasn't able to cope. Now the PR6 that the ESB, the £18-19 billion that's been put in to the grid by the ESB, that is not to support the grid for future data centre development, that is only to support and keep the grid robust for existing data centre development. So anything additional we put on it is going to cause problems. Now I don't know if you read, but I'd certainly advise you take a look at the documentation. Hannah Daly, who's a professor in sustainable energy from UCC, she was in to the Dáil last week and she's written a blog post on data centres and the risks and I would advise that you take a look at it. I think particularly in your role it's going to be really important that you get this independent advice in relation to the impact and I think when you look at the figures that she's talking about, so it's something like the potential and what the CRU estimates is that there's potentially 5.8 gigawatts, I think, to come on stream or could potentially come on stream. She goes through all the risks with that, but it is quite stark. I think from a cost perspective or from a demand perspective, and I know in your motion you say, well, we're asking them to put 80% will have to be from renewable energy, but that's, there's six years before they have to hit that and even their 20%, the fact that they don't have to have that 20% is crazy when we're trying to move away from fossil fuels, right? So if they're going to be in place, they should be 100%. There's data centres that are currently operating now who are being, who it's claiming are essentially 100% renewable because they're buying credits from Germany, I think it is, in relation to biomethane. There are business loops that are built into this system that will cause us problems down the road. There will be difficulties with it. And I suppose I just briefly want to say, I mean, in 2021, the social Democrats asked for moratorium on data centres. We called for them because we said it is really important to get our facts right on this. We need to know how many we can have at what cost, how many can we afford from price perspective, from an energy demand perspective, from a climate perspective. Minister, I so wish the previous government took that opportunity to just pause back in 2021, because I think we will be in a lot better position now. But what I would ask that, you know, a tree built now is, you know, if you haven't built it 20 years ago, the next best time is to build a tree now. I would ask you please now take a really close look at this and do the analysis. This is a risk we can't afford to take.