Two data centres get green light for south Dublin despite refusal by council
Two adjoining data centres have been granted planning permission in Lucan, despite an earlier rejection from South Dublin County Council (SDCC).
The council had refused the plan by EdgeConnex Ireland citing a number of reasons, including insufficient capacity in the national electricity network.
It also said the proposed data centres lacked a fixed connection agreement with an electricity provider, and it was reliant on a gas-powered network with no access to an on-site clean energy source to support its running.
EdgeConnex Ireland appealed the decision to An Coimisiún Pleanála, saying the council had taken an “unduly rigid approach” and had misunderstood its responses during the planning process.
The planning body overturned the SDCC decision and granted permission to EdgeConnex saying its plan was consistent with the Climate Action Plans for 2024 and 2025.
The permission came with the condition that the data centres will enter into a Corporate Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) – buying electricity from a renewable source for at a fixed price – with a clean energy provider.
It also approved 24 standby generators within the data centres but restricted the use of fossil fuels in running it.
In May, People Before Profit (PBP) councillor Darragh Adelaide had asked SDCC for a report on data centres within the council area, including those being appealed.
The council’s chief executive confirmed there had been 50 planning applications to date, six had been refused by the council and two of those refusals were on appeal.
In 2022, SDCC voted on a now-reversed amendment from PBP councillor Madeleine Johansson to prevent the construction of more data centres in the county as part of the new County Development Plan for 2022 to 2028.
The majority of Ireland’s data centres are concentrated in Dublin, with at least 30 of them situated in the south of the county.
SDCC’s ban was contested by the Office of the Planning Regulator citing that it did not align with national policy.
“The capacity of the electricity grid is limited and we have already been seeing an increase in blackouts,” councillor Johansson said at the time.
“When we know there’s a strain on capacity, we should be prioritising the building of homes and supplying them with electricity. These data centres also use up a lot of water.”