Energy

ESB error led to Meta being undercharged for 18 months

Tech giant has not been fully charged for use of millions of euro-worth of power at Clonee data centre due to substation technical fault

Meta’s hyperscale data centre in Clonee, Co Meath, which uses the same amount of electricity in a single year as 150,000-plus homes

Facebook owner Meta has been undercharged on its multimillion euro electricity bills for its Irish data centre because of an ESB error, the Business Post can reveal.

Industry sources confirmed to this newspaper that the US tech giant has not been fully charged for electricity usage at its Clonee, Co Meath hyperscale centre since August 2021 due to a technical connection error at a nearby sub-station operated by ESB Networks.

The semi-state transmission system operator ...