Pure DC

Pure DC commissioned Europe's first 110 MW data-centre microgrid in Dublin in March 2026, with AVK as engineering partner. The project generates power on-site using gas generation with biomethane and hydrotreated vegetable oil switching capability, and was confirmed in April 2026 as the working template for compliance with CRU2025236, the CRU's December 2025 rule requiring new data centres to demonstrate on-site dispatchable generation. The microgrid explicitly bypasses EirGrid's grid-connection queue: by staying off the regulated transmission network, the facility avoids both the queue and the CRU's additional requirement for 80% Irish renewable sourcing within six years of energisation.

Pure DC operates in markets where grid access is the primary bottleneck. The company has a presence in the UK through a site at Cobalt Park in North Tyneside, an AI Growth Zone development that also includes Blackstone and Nscale projects. OpenAI paused its own Cobalt Park Stargate site in April 2026, citing unfavourable regulatory conditions and energy costs; the Pure DC and other Cobalt Park components continue.

Pure DC's microgrid model has become commercially significant beyond Dublin: with EirGrid's informal moratorium blocking new grid-connected large-load connections, the behind-the-meter route is the only viable pathway for new data-centre capacity in the Dublin market. It has attracted attention from operators across Europe facing similar grid-queue pressure in constrained markets. EirGrid's 30 June 2026 fault-ride-through procedure, a 900 MW ceiling on instantaneous demand loss for data centres connected to the network, adds a further instrument to that context: the more constrained the grid-side commitment becomes, the stronger the commercial case for Pure DC's off-grid model. The key regulatory question is whether CRU's on-site generation template, validated by Pure DC, will be adopted by operators in other jurisdictions or whether it remains specific to Ireland's regulatory environment.