Eirgrid plans to double capacity

IRELAND'S ELECTRICITY capacity is to be doubled by 2025 at a cost of €4 billion, Eirgrid, the operator of the ESB-owned national grid, said yesterday.

In its strategy paper on Ireland's future electricity transmission network, Grid25, the agency outlined its plan to double the capacity of the national bulk transmission grid by 2025, through a combination of upgrading the existing network and the construction of new transmission infrastructure.

Launching the report, Eamon Ryan, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, said the strategy would, "provide a platform so that, in each region of Ireland, we can harness our abundant renewable energy resources and provide clean and competitively priced electricity for homes, businesses and new high-tech industries".

Achievement of the strategy will be dependent on investment of € 4 billion in essential infrastructure over the next 17 years, with appropriate regulatory oversight by the Commission for Energy Regulation.

The € 4 billion will be used to fund developments throughout the State, including an estimated €800 million investment in the eastern region, as well as a € 310 million investment in the midlands and € 830 million in the southeast.

Eirgrid chief executive Dermot Byrne said that Grid25was the agency's response to the challenge of meeting the forecast growth in electricity demand of 60 per cent over the period to 2025.

According to Eirgrid, capacity has remained largely unchanged in the last 20 years, a period that has seen a growth of 150 per cent in the demand for electricity being carried by the system.

Without the investment, Eirgrid predicts that, within the next five to 10 years, key parts of the grid will have reached capacity and will be in danger of overloading, resulting in blackouts.

A key part of the strategy will be to bring new levels of wind generation, both on- and off-shore, and to introduce commercial ocean technology-based generation to Ireland. In addition, the plan will aim to reduce Ireland's carbon emissions by transmitting renewable energy in line with Government policy, and will also increase the country's connectivity to the European grid.