Natural gas consumption dipped last year on a power plant shut down, official figures show.
Bord Gáis Energy’s Whitegate power station and one unit of Energia’s two Huntstown plants were out of action for most of last year, but restarted in the autumn.
According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Irish natural gas consumption fell 7.4 per cent in 2021 “mainly due to Whitegate being offline”.
The Republic used enough natural gas last year to generate 55,412 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity. Irish demand is about 31,000 GWh a year.
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Electricity generation accounted for almost two-thirds of the gas used here. The fuel generates about half the power required by the Republic every year.
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Non-residential customers, that is businesses, industry, and other organisations accounted for 25 per cent of gas consumption.
Homes burned 14 per cent of all gas used here in 2021, using almost half that total between January and March.
Dympna Corry, statistician in the CSO’s environment and climate division, noted that non-residential use increased 2.2 per cent.
“There is a strong seasonal variation in networked gas consumption by households due to the use of natural gas for central heating,” she added.
Gas prices soared on world markets last year as many countries emerged from enforced Covid lockdowns.
Prices this summer have been volatile following Russia’s decision to cut shipments of the fuel to Europe amid tensions with the European Union over its invasion of Ukraine.
