Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 December 2025
194. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment whether he has received reports from electricity network operators of outages from fluctuations in frequencies in the grid related to data centres causing issues; and the measures adopted to mitigate their effects. [71756/25]
View answerEirGrid (Ireland’s Transmission System Operator (TSO)) and SONI (Northern Ireland’s TSO) are responsible for operating and developing the respective transmission systems of Ireland and Northern Ireland in a secure and coordinated manner, while also strategically planning for long-term electricity needs. System frequency deviations occur for a wide range of reasons and on an on-going basis. These are proactively managed by the System Operator to maintain system stability. Frequency disturbances associated with Data Centres largely arise as a result of how these demand units respond to other faults on the System.
EirGrid has proposed a Grid Code Modification to ensure that Data Centres improve how they respond to faults on the system which will in turn reduce frequency fluctuations related to Data Centres. My Department has supported this process through facilitated workshops with Industry and are actively engaging with EirGrid and CRU on this matter. The Grid Code Modification is due to be submitted to the CRU in Jan 2026.
