EU to take action on national grid policy

The EU Commission has decided to take legal action against the Government for favouring conventional energy firms over the wind energy sector.

Early next month the EU Commission will announce it is taking infringement proceedings against the Government because it has not granted equal access to the national grid to wind energy companies compared with conventional fossil fuel generators.

The Government will also have to explain the existence of "regulatory barriers to the development of wind energy". The Government will be accused of breaching an EU directive on renewable energy which stipulates that rules governing access to the grid must be "objective, transparent and non-discriminatory".

Developers of wind farms are currently waiting long periods for connections to the grid and a system of grouping wind applications is regarded by many of them as discriminatory. They claim traditional generators are given much easier access.

It is understood the Government and the regulator, the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER), will argue that connections to the grid were provided more quickly to large fossil fuel generators because their output is desperately needed to head off a potential power crisis.

A spokesman for the energy commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, said: "The European Commission is going to open a package of infringement procedures against a number of member states. At this stage we cannot comment on which member states are going to be affected by the measures". He said an announcement would be made on April 4th.

Thousands of farms and landowners are currently trying to get a connection to the national grid. The CER and ESB National Grid are taking applicants in batches, but the sheer numbers are overwhelming.

It is estimated up to 3,000 megawatts of wind power have yet to receive a grid connection. Another 1,200 megawatts are connected or are being connected, but reinforcement work often has to be done at sites where wind farms are situated and this slows down the process.

Wind energy companies believe the environmental benefits of the industry should be supported through Government policies. The Minister for Communications, Noel Dempsey, has pledged to make sure that within four years 13.2 per cent of all of Ireland's energy resources will come from wind.

However, having a large amount of energy on the system can generate problems, according to some observers. For example, wind does not blow all the time and in that case conventional power stations must be brought onstream to replace the wind output.

The other problem is that at non-peak periods the wind energy is not necessarily needed, and with 3,000 megawatts still seeking access to the national grid, the issue of supply and demand is being debated within the energy sector.

However, the wind energy sector has countered these arguments.