Ireland’s 2021 Climate Action Plan (CAP) outlines a roadmap to deliver on its climate ambitions while recognising the challenges posed by the growing electricity consumption from data centres to meet the emission targets.
The Central Statistics Office figures for 2023 show that data centres consumed 6.3 TWh of metered electricity, up from 5.3 TWh in 2022 and 1.2 TWh in 2015. By 2032, up to 30 % of all electricity demand is forecasted to come from data centres, outpacing industrial electricity consumption (19 %).
In connection with this, the CAP includes a task to create an enhanced carbon reporting framework, including for electricity emissions, for large energy users (LEU) to facilitate reduced carbon intensity. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) was assigned the task.
In its report, the authority recommends the Irish government to:
establish a granular GO system parallel to the existing one for large energy users;
extend GO issuance to renewable subsidised assets, and potentially low-carbon sources;
set sourcing boundary for granular GO procurement as Ireland.
Veyt learned from the market players who spoke to the Irish authorities that there will be a consultation process on the implementation of the hourly GO system this autumn; the system itself would not come until 2026.
If implemented, a parallel granular GO scheme could decrease the supply of domestic GOs and consequently lead to the suppliers turning to RES-E GO imports from other AIB domains.
The sustainable data centre delegated act spawned from the Energy Efficiency Directive and requires all data centers in the EU to report on an annual basis starting from September 2024 to a national / EU database a wide range of energy metrics including total power use and total renewable consumption, using GOs, PPAs and/or on-site consumption.
Ireland could go the extra mile by implementing a granular GO system. The decision to implement this framework lies with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communication (DECC).
The granular GO scheme would apply to LEUs, such as the largest data centres and the highest electricity consumers in other business sectors such as IT and cement manufacturing.
The SEAI examined several options for the implementation of the carbon reporting framework in Ireland:
a granular GO scheme based on and running parallel to the existing GO scheme;
an emission accounting scheme, where meter data for LEUs and associated generators is matched centrally without certificates.
It ended up recommending a separate hourly GO scheme, in line with the granularity provisions in the Renewable Energy Directive. The diagram below displays the functioning of the scheme.
Tentatively, SEMO, the Irish issuing GO body, would be responsible for the issuance of granular GOs to the generator, which would then be sold to LEUs to match their verified consumption. The issuance and cancellation of granular GOs would be recorded by the registry, with the LEU meter data matched to the certificate data during cancellation.
SEMO would verify the metered supply and consumption data and provide grid emissions data to the software platform for the emissions intensity of the LEU’s residual load to be calculated.
Separately, the SEAI recommends hourly timestamping of granular certificates, extension of GO issuance to subsidised renewable generators to ensure market liquidity and delineating the scheme’s boundary to Ireland.
Additionally, double-counting prevention is noted. Since subsidised renewable generators are ineligible for GOs, this limits the risk to the unsubsidised generators that are currently receiving GOs. Nonetheless, the report suggests the DECC investigate this when assessing the risks and benefits of the parallel granular GO scheme.
SEAI is concerned that if Ireland were to implement the parallel GO scheme, it would be taking action ahead of other Member States and an EU-wide approach to granular reporting.
The report recommends the government to act now and notify of the mandatory participation in the scheme at least one year ahead. If the scheme is approved in 2025, and depending on the implementation pace, it could launch between mid-2026 and the beginning of 2027 at the earliest. The pilot integration of granular GOs in Ireland was completed in July 2025, according to Veyt’s sources.
For the EECS GO scheme, the introduction of the parallel granular GO scheme would decrease the supply of domestic GOs and could consequently lead to the suppliers turning to RES-E GO imports from other AIB domains, boosting demand.
Since 2019, Ireland has been experiencing RES-E GO deficit (see graph below): during the 2024 disclosure period, the domain cancelled 22.9 TWh, while domestically supplying 3.8 TWh and net importing 22 TWh annually.
Extending the GO issuance eligibility to subsidised assets would help counter undersupply inside the domain. Currently, just under 20 % of Irish renewable electricity generation (14 TWh) is issued GOs. Nevertheless, as electricity demand increases faster than the pace at which renewable generation is added, the undersupply could persist.
For the granular GO scheme, geographical matching would severely restrict GO supply, although RES-E GOs from subsidised GOs could ensure a minimum level of market liquidity.
According to data from the Irish Central Statistics Office, LEUs with high metered electricity consumption accounted for 9.1 TWh or 30 % of total electricity used in 2023. Data centres consumed 6.3 TWh of that amount.
Peak demand for LEUs occurred between 13:00 and 15:00 (see below). For the granular GO system, we could expect price premiums to emerge for these hours. This would also present the opportunity for intraday price arbitrage for storage owners.
Two co-existing schemes would mean that different consumers (i.e. LEUs vs. others) would report renewable electricity procurement on a different basis. The SEAI warns that EECS RES-E GO prices would cease to be a reasonable benchmark for LEUs in the granular scheme and that the risks associated with the lack of comparability between the two schemes will need to be managed.
In principle, there are currently no obstacles to the implementation of granular GOs in Ireland. However, local market participants shared that power suppliers may be against the move as the change would make it difficult to achieve the “100 % green status” that electricity providers use in their marketing.
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