The Constraint Dividend
Siting Ireland’s next gigawatt of digital demand where the grid is already paying for wasted energy
Summary
Ireland dispatched down 2,139 GWh of available wind energy in 2025, and constraint costs reached €567 million in 2024/25, while data centres face a connection regime that cannot currently progress applications in constrained transmission areas. These are treated as separate problems. This paper argues the geography of the first substantially defines the solution space of the second, and builds a ranked, constraint-subgroup exposure map from public data to show where.
What it covers
- A reproducible exposure map with its scoring method, rubrics and sensitivities published.
- Trapped-energy pools behind the leading constraints quantified from primary EirGrid data.
- Every substantive claim carries an evidential label (verified, public-signal or inference) alongside its citation.
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Published by Amata Consulting, the research and advisory imprint of Amata Engineering Limited. Authorship and any declared interest are stated in the document.