Vantage Data Centers has lost an appeal in Dublin to overturn a local council’s planning permission denial.

As reported by the Business Post, Irish planning regulator An Bord Pleanála this week rejected Vantage’s appeal after it was previously denied permission for a data center.

Vantage first filed and was granted permission to develop two data center buildings – known as Building 11 and Building 12 – on land within Profile Park back in 2021.

The company then filed to build DUB13 on 3.79 hectares on the south side of New Nangor Road, Dublin, in Profile Park back in April 2023.

Vantage had hoped to build a single two-story data center totaling 12,895 sqm (138,780 sq ft). As well as 13 emergency backup generators, the application also noted plans to house photovoltaic panels at the roof level.

However, the South Dublin County Council determined that the application did not include an “adequate assessment of the potential impacts of the proposed development on the receiving environment,” and also pointed to the “lack of a fixed connection agreement to connect to the grid, the lack of significant on-site renewable energy to power the proposed development, the lack of evidence provided in relation to the applicant’s engagement with Power Purchase Agreements in Ireland” as a significant obstacle to the development.

The application was ultimately rejected in May 2023, leading to Vantage lodging an appeal in June that year. Though the planning inspector’s report had recommended approval, the regulator’s board has now decided to reject the appeal.

In a judgment handed down this week, An Bord Pleanála said the board was not satisfied that Vantage had done enough to show DUB13 has a fixed connection agreement to connect to the grid – meaning it would likely rely on the campus’ natural gas power plant for its primary power source.

“Due to the absence of clarity regarding a fixed connection agreement, demonstrating existing capacity in the electricity grid … the board was not satisfied that the permitted on-site gas-powered generation would not be used as the primary energy source,” the regulator said.

An Bord Pleanála noted that islanded data center developments that are not connected to the electricity grid and are powered mainly by on-site fossil fuels are not in line with Ireland’s national policy around data centers.

While the planning inspector’s report accepted Vantage’s position that a grid connection would be available for DUB 13, the board “was not satisfied” that the company had actually demonstrated a fixed connection agreement to connect to the grid for that particular facility.

The company argued that the existing agreement encompassed the entire campus – and therefore included DUB13 – but the board said “it was not evident” that DUB 13 actually constituted part of the campus submission considered by Eirgrid.

“The board considered the information submitted with the application and appeal lacked clarity and specificity regarding the connection for the proposed development, DUB 13, being included in the agreement that is in place,” the decision said. “The legal agreement submitted did not provide sufficient clarity as to which data centers, permitted or proposed, the agreement related to.”

DCD has reached out to Vantage for comment.

Vantage’s website currently describes its Dublin campus as a 22-acre site encompassing two two-story buildings, offering 52MW across 37,625 sqm (405,000 sq ft). The company notes “available land and power” to add a third building in future.

“The campus will include an on-site 100MVA multi-fuel generation plant capable of running a combination of fuels, primarily hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), a renewable fuel, and gas fed by Gas Networks Ireland,” the company’s website notes.

One of the reasons the county denied the original application was due to a lack of PPAs signed by Vantage. However, in its appeal, the company included a proposal to enter into a PPA with Nephin Renewable Gas Limited (NRG) for the production of biomethane.

Profile Park is home to several data centers, including those owned by CyrusOne, Google, and Digital Realty. Equinix recently lost its own appeal against a council decision to deny a gas-powered data center in the area.

The move toward gas-powered data centers has been motivated by the defacto moratorium on new data centers in Dublin imposed by state-owned grid operator EirGrid until at least 2028. Around a dozen data centers have been given approval to be connected to Dublin’s gas network to get around the lack of grid connection, though this route has since been blocked off by the Irish government.

As a means to reduce the impact of new data centers on the Irish grid – though perhaps not ease grid capacity issues in constrained areas such as Dublin – Ireland’s energy regulator has proposed new rules that would require data centers to match their proposed loads with new renewable energy capacity.