Friends of the Earth Raises Concerns Over Government’s Private Wires Policy and Risk of a Two-Tier Energy System

New policy enabling private electricity lines risks entrenching fossil fuel use and increasing electricity costs, primarily to benefit data centres.

Friends of the Earth has criticised the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communication for once again appearing to prioritise data centres over the needs of the public in its new Private Wires policy . 

Friends of the Earth believes that this policy will intensify the inequality in our energy system, and does nothing to limit the energy demand of large users, namely data centres, who now account for 22% of Ireland’s electricity consumption, a 400% increase over 10 years. Instead, the policy risks locking-in greater fossil fuel dependency and could amount to a corporate capture of renewables. The policy risks undermining public trust in the energy transition and risks increasing people’s bills. 

Rosi Leonard, Data Centre Campaigner with Friends of the Earth commented:

“Despite committing to decarbonisation and meeting climate obligations in the Programme for Government, the Private Wires policy makes no reference to the risks of new data centre demand which is choking our energy system and locking us into new fossil fuel infrastructure, making it harder and harder to roll our renewables fairly in a way that actually benefits communities.”

Leonard continued:

“Instead Private Wires looks like it will live up to its name- creating a two-tier energy system that will benefit data centres who are given the green light to build out their own private grids, competing with the public good for access to renewables, labour and land. Companies with more revenue than the State will be contributing less to grid upkeep but competing with the ESB for energy projects.”

Friends of the Earth Ireland notes the policy references concerns that any change to current legislation could see an increase in fossil fuel generation if not properly regulated. However despite this acknowledgement, the policy does not address these concerns or rule out companies being allowed to run their own grids to new fossil fuel plants. The policy does not refer in any way to community energy or community ownership of renewables. These are major oversights that may undermine the Government’s own climate law and carbon budgets, and risk wreaking more havoc on our lives and livelihoods through increased fossil fuel extraction at the exact moment when we urgently need to decrease it.

Sean McLoughlin, Climate Campaigner with Friends of the Earth Ireland commented:

“The Private Wires policy is extremely weak on climate and makes no reference to legally-binding carbon budget obligations. It also looks set to add extra burden to household energy bills. Instead of contributing to the overall upgrade of the grid in order to decarbonise our system, the policy does not require large energy users to cover the full cost of their impact on the grid which means higher charges for all other users, including households. Strangely while the decision acknowledges these risks, it doesn’t lay out a credible plan to address them.[2] For us this begs the question- who is this policy being written for?”

Friends of the Earth calls on the Government to grasp the issue at the root and tackle rising energy demand and fossil fuel lock-in by issuing a moratorium on data centre expansion in Ireland. We reiterate our position that only by reducing the unlimited rise of one the largest energy users in the State that we can decarbonise our grid in a way that puts fairness, climate goals and affordability for households at the centre of the energy transition. 

 

Ends

1. The policy is available here - https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/Private_Wires_Policy_Statement.pdf 
2. The Policy notes “Allowing private wires creates risks that the System Operators will not be able to recover their costs and that other customers may find themselves providing an effective cross subsidy to the private wire operator….If these effects on the ability of System Operators are significant it will be necessary to reform the basis on which network connection charges are made, with an increased emphasis on one off charges to recover the fixed costs of connections and on charges based on the capacity of connections rather than the flow through a connection.” This statement does not rule out subsidisation of grid costs for private wires users by the general public.