08/04/2026
👁️We followed the DCSDC Governance & Strategic Planning Committee discussion closely last week, and one line from the Utility Regulator really stuck out.
This deputation took place because of the January Full Council Notice of Motion on Data Centre Applications, which asked for scrutiny around data centre oversight and the wider impacts on electricity, our AONBs, water and public services.
Because of that motion, the Committee invited a line up of key agencies to attend and answer questions: Dave Whelan (Department for the Economy); Elaine Cassidy and Brian Mulhern (Utility Regulator); Alan Campbell and Eimear Watson (SONI); and Con Feeney and Peter McClenaghan (NIE Networks).
One of the most striking moments (there were a few) was the honesty about electricity prices. The Utility Regulator’s position was clear…..you can’t definitively say that more wind will reduce prices, it might, but it might not. That matters because we are all being sold a simple story that more turbines automatically means cheaper bills. Which we all know at this point is far from the truth.
SONI also said they would welcome a data centre policy if there was a large-scale influx of applications, and confirmed that there is already one live connection offer issued to a data centre in the North West, with another application elsewhere in Northern Ireland at an early stage (a 300MW data centre proposal at Kilroot).
We’ll be sharing more snippets in the coming days. It was certainly interesting viewing….
