Energy blackouts could become a reality this winter if a spell of weak wind activity coincides with the UK not having a sufficient energy surplus to export supplies across the Irish Sea, TDs and senators were told on Tuesday.

However, the prospect of electricity providers failing to meet demand is not excessively worse than it was last winter, Eirgrid said in front of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Environment.

“Neither I, nor anyone else here before you today, can offer a cast-iron guarantee for this winter. I can say that we are very well prepared and when the wind blows, we will not have issues,” said Eirgrid CEO Mark Foley.

“The risk of end customers being impacted is increased this winter because all jurisdictions across Europe are tight and there will be times when wind is low and trades with Great Britain are unavailable,” he said.

Supply issues pre-dating Ukraine

Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan stated that concerns over the State’s ability to match electricity supply and demand was a separate issue to the increased energy costs experienced by consumers after the invasion of Ukraine.

“Concerns over such risks had arisen largely due to the non-delivery of previously contracted capacity, increasing electricity demand and the increasing unreliability of some existing plants,” the minister said.

Some of these existing plants which were due to be wound down over the next few years are due to be kept operational to meet anticipated supply.

Demand rising

The Eirgrid CEO said that the company had identified an “increasing tightness between supply and demand and of adequate generation capacity challenges” as early as 2017.

It argued that the increase in the demand for electricity of 9% over the past five years was “not excessive for a vibrant western economy” and that “we should be capable of meeting this demand without emergency intervention”.

The contributions to the committee’s deliberations made by Eirgrid and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) appeared to differ in their framing of the contribution to the energy supply and demand challenge posed by an increasing number of data centres across the country.

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