Ireland's Data Centres Meet the Hormuz Gas Shock at 23 Per Cent of Demand

Ireland has two records that now interact. Its data centres use a larger share of national electricity than in any other European country. And its power prices are among the most exposed in Europe to the price of imported gas. The war that closed the Strait of Hormuz at the end of February has brought those facts together. On 22 September 2026, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reported that wholesale electricity prices in August were 76.9 per cent higher than in August 2025, and 9.6 per cent higher than in July.

Two months earlier, on 7 July, the CSO published its data centre consumption figures for 2025. The CSO noted that data centre consumption "has grown every single year without exception," more than doubling between 2015 and 2019 and tripling again between 2019 and 2025. Natural gas generates about half the electricity used in Ireland, The Irish Times reported in April. Gas plants are usually the marginal generator in the all-island market, so their fuel cost sets the wholesale price in many hours.

Ireland buys its gas mainly through the British market, and British prices moved sharply after the Strait closed. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says Europe's TTF benchmark averaged near USD 16 per million British thermal units in the second quarter of 2026, up 32 per cent year on year. Large data centres in Ireland buy electricity through supply contracts and power purchase agreements, so they do not see the wholesale price directly in every hour.

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) published its decision on a new connection policy for data centres and other large energy users in December 2025. The combination of a 23 per cent demand share and a 77 per cent wholesale price increase will sharpen the debate over who should bear the cost of Ireland's data centre growth. What the crisis has made clear is that Ireland's exposure is structural.