EirGrid warns of supply issues in Ireland

• 10 months ago (2023-06-13)
• David Flin

Distribution 108 Europe 1061

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EirGrid , Ireland’s electricity operator, has warned that there may soon be electricity supply issues due to the current low availability of renewable energy and unplanned outages of a number of fossil fuel-fired generation units. It said that the reserve capacity between demand and available supply was “below optimum levels”.

It said that there was low availability of wind and solar energy, and that there were both planned and unplanned outages at other generators. Import of electricity through interconnectors are maximised.

Data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that metred electricity consumed by data centres rose from 5 per cent of the total in 2015 to 18 per cent in 2022, an increase of 4.1 TWh annually between those years. Total electricity consumption in Ireland rose by 4.9 TWh annually over the same period, with data centres making up nearly 85 per cent of the rise in electricity demand.