New data centres in Ireland could have their gas supplies temporarily interrupted during periods of extreme national demand under proposals being considered by the country’s energy regulator.
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) wants to make new gas connections interruptible for large industrial customers with peak hourly demand above 50 MWth. That would allow Gas Networks Ireland to curtail their supply when the system comes under sufficient pressure. Gas-fired generators participating in the Single Electricity Market (SEM) would be exempt.
Customers accepting an interruptible connection would receive a tariff discount reflecting the probability of interruption, although the level has not yet been set.
The proposal follows warnings that prospective data centre demand could quickly eat into the headroom available on Ireland’s gas network.
According to the Irish Times, 17 planned data centres have applied for gas-grid connections. CRU analysis suggests their combined peak demand could be equivalent to six 500 MWe combined-cycle gas turbine power stations, or around 2.6 million homes.
Gas Networks Ireland’s modelling suggests there would still be enough capacity to meet normally high winter demand even if those connections proceed.
The risk emerges during severe cold weather. The analysis suggests Ireland could face a gas shortfall of between 9% and 18% as the new demand comes online over the next six or seven years, assuming no additional entry capacity is built beyond that already planned.
Another constraint for Irish data centres
The proposal adds another complication for developers already dealing with tight electricity-grid constraints in Ireland.
Data centres accounted for 23% of Ireland’s metered electricity consumption in 2025, up from 22% a year earlier and just 5% in 2015.
New electricity connection rules introduced by the CRU in December 2025 require data centres to provide generation and/or storage capacity, either onsite or nearby, to match their requested maximum import capacity. Operators must also meet at least 80% of annual electricity demand with additional renewable generation in Ireland, although developers have six years to bring that renewable capacity online.
Those constraints are already forcing developers to become more creative about how new capacity is powered. Earlier this year, Pure DC and AVK announced a 110 MW privately powered campus in Dublin, described by the companies as Europe’s first data centre microgrid and designed to reduce its dependence on delayed grid connections.
The project is an example of how operators are increasingly having to build around Ireland’s energy constraints, combining their own energy infrastructure with whatever capacity can be secured from the wider network.
The latest gas proposal shows there are limits to that approach too.
Gas-fired generation is one way developers can provide the dispatchable capacity needed to support new electricity connections, but doing so at scale can place additional demand on the gas network.
The CRU has therefore proposed exempting gas-fired generators participating in the SEM from mandatory interruption. The regulator says interrupting those generators could transfer an unacceptable security-of-supply risk from the gas system to the electricity system.
Other large industrial gas connections covered by the proposed regime would not receive the same exemption.
