Keeping cool has not just been a problem for people in Ireland and the rest of Europe these past few weeks. The data centres that power our smartphones, tablets and online lives are also straining.
As temperatures have spiked, so have the energy requirements of the technology companies.
Millions of computer servers need to stay cool, regardless of what is going on outside the buildings where they are housed, with air conditioning critical.
In the past week, news reports have detailed how heatwaves have driven up electricity demand from data centres in the US as air conditioning units have kicked in.
READ MORE
Not only are they reported to be draining more electricity, but they are also said to be adding to soaring local temperatures.
The Guardian reported on the woes of people living next to Europe’s largest data centre hub in Slough, just west of London. Residents said the presence of multiple data centres had compounded the recent high temperatures, making life there almost unbearable.
Research suggests that the centres can create a “heat island” effect, which can drive up local temperatures by an additional nine degrees. This happens when the centres essentially “dump” the excess heat out through their air conditioning systems.
And then, on the fringes of the European heat-dome – an area where high pressure gets stuck, trapping warm air underneath – there is Ireland.
There are well over 100 data centres located in the State, the majority found in three clusters not far from Dublin’s M50 ring road: in Blanchardstown, Clonee and Grange Castle.
[ Heat warning in place for five counties as temperatures to hit 29 degrees ]
As revealed by the Central Statistics Office last week, data centres account for 23 per cent of Ireland’s total electricity demand.
US technology companies were drawn to Ireland in the 2000s primarily due to its tax-effective investment offering. But as it became apparent that vast storage facilities would be needed to store the almost unimaginable amounts of information they were collecting, the country’s moderate climate began to hold great appeal.
In theory, the lower average temperatures offered by Ireland can lower the electricity bills of data-centre operators by reducing the need for costly air conditioning.
But what happens when the temperature surges as it did last month and again last week?
Can Ireland sustain its reputation as a climate-proofed home for this type of facility and what kind of additional strain does this place on the national grid?
Last month was “exceptionally warm”, according to Met Éireann’s latest climate statement. The average temperature was 15.3 degrees, which was 1.65 degrees above the long-term average.
On June 25th, a total of 13 Irish weather stations reported record temperatures. Ireland also met the technical definition of a heatwave: five successive days with temperatures above 25 degrees. Temperatures again topped 25 degrees in many areas last week.
Paul Deane, from the school of engineering at University College Cork (UCC), says it is certainly plausible that there was increased energy demand from data centres based in Ireland during these periods.
“As things get hotter, cooling demand increases,” he says.
“The data centres have two options: they can drive up their demand for electricity or they can look to internally reduce their consumption.”
Data centres, like residential homes, have a maximum energy import capacity beyond which they cannot draw any more power from the grid.
But, Deane says, centres that are not normally operating at their maximum could easily increase their electricity demand.
The problem in trying to analyse this, he says, is there is a lack of “granular” data around individual data centres. He says national information provided by grid operator EirGrid does not allow for a detailed examination.
EirGrid acknowledges the effect that warmer weather has on the grid. It cites a “range of factors” driving demand, including “increased use of cooling and air-conditioning systems in commercial buildings, industrial facilities, data centres and other sectors”.
Muireann Lynch, senior research officer at the Economic & Social Research Institute (ESRI) says it “stands to reason” that the air-conditioning requirements of the data centres would increase during warmer weather like that experienced in recent weeks.
“The warmer the ambient temperature the more energy it takes to cool them – and that is one of the reasons they want to be in Ireland,” she says.
It is hard to quantify how much extra demand the warm summer weather might place on the grid, Lynch says, but she frames the issue in broader terms.
“Modern power systems need to be able to generate enough power to meet predictable demand, and this has been predicted for over a decade,” she says.
Lynch contends that Ireland could conceivably meet the rising demands for electricity from data centres – and still hit its emissions targets – if power-generating infrastructure were delivered quickly and efficiently.
Unfortunately, she says, Ireland is not good at doing this.
As the country swelters, experts believe its relatively cooler heatwaves will still be deemed preferable to those experienced on parts of the Continent.
“Ireland showed up as one of the least climate-exposed locations in our analysis,” says Jeremy Porter, chief economist with the US climate analytics firm First Street.
Porter’s research shows 79 per cent of the world’s data-centre capacity is in locations exposed to acute climate-related hazards such as flooding, extreme winds and wildfires.
He says that while Ireland’s higher-than-normal temperatures will have put increased strain on energy demand, over the longer run investment will move away from locations where climate change is more pronounced.
“In northern Europe and Ireland there will be increased demand for new data centres,” he says.
“This is down to two things: there are already tech companies there who have capacity needs and the closer you locate data centres to the actual users the faster the data transfer is. But intersecting that with climate is also important.”
His research shows that many of the most exposed data centres are in the US and in certain southern European clusters.
Out of 97 locations around the world, it ranked Dublin as the 10th least exposed to acute climate risks.
Porter says that when companies look to locate new centres climate risks and power availability are now paramount.
“Data centres have always been around, but the nature of the servers, the nature of the computing demands and the capacity that is needed has increased dramatically,” he says.
“Where we used to put data centres was fine, but they didn’t have the requirement for the grid the way they do now.”
How Ireland, which is already straining to keep pace with current data energy demands, could possibly entertain the idea of more centres coming here is hard to imagine.
UCC’s Paul Deane depicts a situation where the grid operator is already sometimes flying blind when assessing demand from the centres.
He gives the example of what is known in the electricity grid industry as “fault ride through”.
“If data centres see a wobble in the electricity supply coming down the line, they’ll disconnect and turn on their own generators almost immediately,” he says.
“For the operator, this means you have a data centre’s load turning off instantly and that can send a wave back out into the grid causing propagation issues. This can cause huge headaches.”
He says EirGrid is in communication with the operators to encourage them to be “more flexible” in absorbing uneven supply.
Even if Ireland remains an attractive place to locate data centres from a climate point of view, power constraints are likely to put a cap on their numbers.
The ESRI’s Muireann Lynch says: “If data centres are here to stay – and the tech companies decide to keep expanding – all we can really do is get better at building-out sources of supply.”
