Amazon seeks permission to build datacentre on site of former Irish biscuit factory

Growing demand could lead to power shortages

Ireland has emerged as a popular location for datacentre builds in recent years, thanks to its temperate climate, relatively low land costs and proximity to transatlantic undersea network cables.

This has seen the likes of Apple, Facebook and Microsoft embark on Irish datacentre builds, along with some smaller players, including Sungard and – more recently – Interxion.

However, concerns about how well-equipped the country is to respond to the growing demand for power these datacentre builds are likely to fuel have emerged of late.

Speaking to Computer Weekly, Ricky Cooper, vice-president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at datacentre builder Digital Realty, said Ireland is facing some challenges around the supply of “new power” sources.

An in-depth report in the Irish Times highlighted the issue in early 2015, explaining how the country’s reliance on imported power from the UK could put it at risk of energy shortages in the years to come.

Part of the problem for the datacentre sector, Cooper said, is operators are often forced to overprovision power because of the difficulties they face trying to accurately gauge how much customers are likely to use over the course of their contracts.

“As yet, no-one has been able to gauge how much they’re using really accurately. At the same time, they’re virtualising and consolidating, meaning customers are entering into a contract for 500kw, but they might end up using 100kw,” said Cooper.

“There isn’t a mechanism to help them scale down and – in the meantime – we can’t sell that extra 400kw of power. That’s the problem,” he added. xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx