Councillors question whether new Fingal gas plant would serve households, or data centres

Trucks and lorries rumbled along the Kilshane Road towards the construction site on the north-western outskirts of Finglas on Monday morning.

In the midst of the cacophony was a brown cow, grazing in a small triangular field between the road and the building site.

The construction work was for a 293 megawatt gas turbine power station, the first phase of a strategic infrastructure development being helmed by Kilshane Energy Limited.

An Bord Pleanála granted Kilshane Energy permission to proceed with the first phase of works on 16 May 2024.

Just south of the station, the energy company now has the second phase of the project in its sights, one which would see them build two open-cycle gas turbines on approximately 5.25 hectares of land zoned for heavy industry.

The culmination of these two phases will be a peaking plant which operates when electricity demand is high and the supply of renewable energy is low, Sarah Lowther, Fingal County Council’s executive planner, told the council at their monthly meeting on 14 September.

“The peaking plants are crucial to avoid power outages, and to ensure the security of electricity supply in the grid with increased renewable sources of energy,” she said.

As a strategic infrastructure development, the planning application goes straight to An Coimisiún Pleanála rather than to council planners.

But Fingal councillors are required to submit a report to An Coimisiún Pleanála, to feed in what they think about this proposed 680 megawatt plant, said Róisín Burke, the council's director of planning and development.

In its application, Kilshane Energy Limited says the plant will be able to "quickly dispatch power to balance fluctuating electricity demand in the grid due to intermittent renewable supplies".

Peaking plants like this one – which is "forecasted to operate for between 22 and 100 hours a year per turbine" – "are crucial to avoid power outages and ensuring the security of electricity supply in a grid with increased renewable sources of energy", the planning application says.

When Kilshane applied for the first phase, back in 2023, the An Bord Pleanála inspector who reviewed that application accepted this justification.

The inspector's report said the plant was intended to "complement expansion of renewable energy supplies, by overcoming the challenges of capacity shortfalls in energy generation that may be weather dependant, in the context of an increasingly unreliable and aging conventional electricity generation supply".

The report pointed out that the national Climate Action Plan sets a target of at least 2GW of new flexible gas-fired generation capacity by 2030. In its planning application, Kilshane said "The delivery of the proposed development will make a significant (34%) contribution to the realisation of the 2GW target for new flexible gas plant".

But the proposal was a divisive one in the Fingal County Council chamber as it was debated, with some local representatives concerned that much of the power generated from this station would be sucked up by data centres.

Data Centres

There are 12 data centres in the Dublin 15 area, or a tenth of the total number of centres nationally, Solidarity Councillor John Burtchaell said at the meeting.

Burtchaell was concerned that this station would “substantially” be used to power a nearby data centre that is being built by Energia, he said.

“So this isn’t really about energy security for homes, it’s about energy security for these vast behemoths that are consuming our electricity and water,” he said.

It is a major concern that there are, within 5km of this area, ten data centres, said Sinn Féin Councillor Angela Donnelly.

“So we’re putting a huge power station very close to a densely populated area, and you can’t help but think it’s mostly being built mostly to send energy to the ten data centres,” she said.

It was a colossal-looking station, and it was only 2km away from a residential development in the Holywoodrath townland, Labour Councillor Breda Hanaphy said. “How much will go to the residents? What is it for data centres?”

Lowther, at the meeting, said she could not provide information in relation to any data centres. “We can only go on the information submitted as part of the application.”

According to the directory Data Centre Map, Energia Group is constructing two data centres next to the Huntstown Power Station – which is a separate station, south of the Kilshane SID.

A spokesperson for Kilshane Energy said on Monday that the 680 megawatt open cycle gas-fired generation station is a standalone generation project.

"Kilshane Energy can confirm that its Phase 2 planning application has no connection to, and is not being developed to provide power specifically to the Energia Group data centre at Huntstown," they said.

Of course, there are a lot of other data centres around the area sucking up electricity from the grid.

About 50 percent of the electricity produced in the Dublin/Meath region is consumed by data centres, according to a February report from the Commission for Regulation of Utilities.

And as demand for electricity grows, "A key driver for electricity demand in Ireland for the next number of years is the connection of data centres and other new technology loads", according to the All Island Resource Adequacy Assessment for 2026 to 2035, a report from EirGrid, and its Northern counterpart Soni.

But Hannah Daly, a professor in sustainable energy and energy systems modelling at University College Cork, in a 2022 report, found that "high electricity demand from data centres is not the primary driving factor for new natural gas generation capacity".

"Even under very low data centre demand growth, additional natural gas-fired power generation capacity is necessary", she found. "The majority of additional capacity investment in all cases is required to replace older and more carbon-intensive capacity, particularly in oil, coal and peat, and meet near-term capacity constraints in the electricity system."

However, data centres could play a role, Daly found. In a scenario with high data centre demand growth, an additional 200 MW of natural gas capacity would be needed, she found.

"Green" tech

Concerns raised by councillors were valid, and at the same time, there is a case to be made for gas peaking plants as the country shifts towards a renewable-dominated electricity system, said Green Party Councillor David Healy, at the meeting.

“But what we’re seeing is, we’re seeing an extent of gas-fired electricity generation, new plants like this, which are being designed to meet the rocketing electricity demand from data centres,” he said.

To keep within climate targets, it is necessary to limit electricity demand and supply it with renewable energy, he said. “There are some existing gas plants which will serve to deal with intermittency. But it also means investment in interconnection, investment in storage and investment in demand-responsive electricity management.”

Fine Gael Councillor Tom O’Leary said there is a need for plants like these to avert power cuts. “I experienced one in Skerries recently, and it’s only when the plug is pulled that you realise, I won’t say how helpless you are, but how things grind to a halt in all shapes and manners.”

O’Leary pointed to the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities new Large Energy Users Connection Policy, which states that new data centres must develop sufficient renewable energy generation to match 80 percent of their annual electricity demand.

“But in the meantime, we have to be sensible, and we need gas plants like this,” he said.

What is wrong with it powering any of the existing data centres, said independent Councillor Jimmy Guerin said. “What’s wrong with that? They’re being powered anyway.”

But fossil fuels like gas are a “dead end”, said Labour Councillor Brian McDonagh. “There is alternative solutions, and the biggest alternative solution you can see being implemented in California is large-scale battery use, which will have its own issues.”

All of the comments made by councillors would be collated and form part of a report that the council will submit to An Coimisiún Pleanála, independent councillor and mayor Tony Murphy told the chamber.

The item was noted.