Ireland’s data centres, along with many other countries, are facing a major energy supply challenge
Power grid operators such as Eirgrid will no longer allow them to remain passive consumers. Instead, they expect them to play an active role in supporting grid stability. This is an essential measure to ensure availability of supply and to keep electricity costs down for both industrial and domestic consumers.
ABB has responded by setting a new benchmark for data centre energy infrastructure with a breakthrough solution that combines ultracapacitor energy storage (UCAPS ESS) and dynamic grid support with intelligent, real-time power orchestration. The solution is designed to meet the most demanding grid stability requirements by enabling data centres to respond to grid disturbances in milliseconds, without redesigning existing electrical systems.
At the core of ABB’s innovation is a compact modular, behind-the-meter platform that transforms how power is managed during critical events. By integrating ultrafast energy storage with grid-forming power conversion and advanced digital control, the solution enables large energy users to actively stabilize the grid while maintaining operational continuity.
The approach represents a fundamental shift. Rather than relying on traditional backup systems designed to isolate facilities from grid events, ABB’s technology allows data centres to dynamically interact with the grid, delivering precise, sub-second responses that support frequency stability, voltage control and rapid demand recovery.
ABB’s new whitepaper, Ireland’s Data Centres – Moving from Passive Consumption to Active Participation in Grid Stabilization, outlines how this world-leading approach provides a practical, scalable pathway to compliance with emerging grid code requirements such as EirGrid’s MPID345.
A new regulatory reality for Ireland’s data centres
Ireland’s data centres now consume approximately 24 percent of the country’s total electricity supply – a figure expected to reach 30 percent by 2032. While the sector contributes an estimated €7.3 billion to the Irish economy, and AI adoption could add a further €250–310 billion to GDP by 2035, this rapid growth is placing increasing pressure on grid stability, triggering new regulatory requirements that fundamentally change how large energy users must operate.
Under its Large Energy-User Action Plan (LEAP), Ireland now requires major data centres to provide dispatchable on-site or proximate generation and/or storage matched to their Maximum Import Capacity (MIC) on a de-rated basis, and to participate actively in the electricity market. New facilities must also source at least 80 percent of their annual energy from new, locally developed renewable energy projects.
MPID345 – EirGrid’s proposed grid code modification, will require large demand facilities, not limited to Data Centres, to remain connected during grid faults, restore 90 percent of pre-fault demand within 500 milliseconds of voltage recovery, and withstand frequency changes of up to ±1 Hz per second.
As demand grows, the impact on the grid is becoming more pronounced. The level of load reduction during fault events has increased from 74 MW in January 2022 to 387 MW in May 2025, creating a direct risk to system stability.
“This is a radical change in what the national grid demands of Ireland’s data center operators,” said Lee Todd, Vice President, Energy & Carbon Services, Electrification Service at ABB. “When large loads shed simultaneously during a disturbance, the resulting power imbalance can drive frequency excursions that cascade across the entire grid. That is why the country’s data centre operators will be required to provide grid support. And while Ireland is leading the way, other countries such as Spain and U.S. State of Texas are set to follow.”
From backup systems to coordinated power control
MPID345 is essentially a sub-second power orchestration problem rather than an energy capacity challenge. Conventional data center architectures were designed around continuity of IT load. UPS systems, diesel generators and protection schemes isolate facilities from grid disturbances rather than support grid dynamics.
“The path forward is not more backup capacity, but precise, coordinated control of power delivered at the exact moment it is needed,” said Todd. “We are using ultracapacitors as a unique innovative solution that replaces the need to use the larger alternative technologies of synchronous condensers, e-statcoms or a combination of different technologies. The primary purpose of the solution is to provide not only grid inertia and grid voltage control that can be controlled on demand, but it can also support all the available services that energy storage can provide, lowering CapEx investment and OpEx.”
In a representative 50 MW facility, the modular, medium-voltage platform will be based on 5 × 8.4 MVA compact modular power blocks, providing approximately 42 MVA of installed dynamic support capability.
Data centres and other facilities that adopt dynamic compliance technologies early will gain a competitive advantage in regulatory compliance, operational resilience and future participation in Ireland’s flexibility and ancillary services markets.
The full whitepaper is available at: https://search.abb.com/library/Download.aspx?DocumentID=9AKK108473A0015&LanguageCode=en&DocumentPartId=&Action=Launch
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