Data centres increased electricity consumption by 30% in 2022

Kenneth Fox

Data centres increased their electricity consumption by over 30 per cent last year, compared to 2021.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show from the first quarter of 2015 to the last quarter of 2022, the increase was 400 per cent.

The increase in electricity consumption is driven by a combination of existing data centres using more electricity and the addition of new centres to the grid.

The percentage of metered electricity consumed by data centres rose from 5 per cent in 2015 to 18 per cent in 2022.

This was an increase of 4,016 Gigawatt hours between 2015 and 2022 the CSO said.

Total metered electricity consumption increased by 20 per cent or 4,900 Gigawatt hours between 2015 and 2022.

Quarterly metered electricity consumption by data centres increased steadily from 290 Gigawatt hours in the first quarter of 2015 to 1,450 Gigawatt hours in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Commenting on the release Niamh Shanahan, statistician in the environment and climate Division, said: "The report shows the total metered electricity consumption by data centres by quarter for the period 2015 to 2022.

"Data centre consumption increased from 290 Gigawatt hours in January to March 2015 to 1,450 GWh in October to December 2022.

"The increase in consumption was driven by a combination of existing data centres using more electricity and new data centres being added to the grid."

The CSO published an additional release on Monday showing total metered electricity consumption.

The percentage of total metered electricity consumption accounted for by data centres increased from 5 per cent in 2015 to 18 per cent in 2022.

Large energy users with very high consumption accounted for 27 per cent of total metered consumption in 2022.

The total metered electricity consumption in 2022 was 29,500 GWh which was a 3.5 per cent increase on 2021."