The Micro-Renewable Energy Federation (MREF) has called on Government to introduce financial supports to incentivise the purchase of storage batteries for farms, homes and businesses.
Group chair Pat Smith stated that such a move would allow farmers to charge the battery during the cheaper nighttime period and utilise the energy the during the day.
Increasing the number of farms and homes doing so would also address building concerns about the potential for winter power outages, as the grid would have a more stable electricity demand profile.
“If every home, farm and business premises in the country had just 10kWh of battery storage that would charge up during off-peak night time periods, or from onsite micro-generation of renewable power for discharge during periods of peak demand in the mornings or late afternoons, this would reduce peak time energy demand on the grid by up to 25m kWh/day,” said Smith.
“That would be a massive contribution to balancing energy loads right across the grid and would go some way towards addressing concerns about the stability and security of energy supplies into the future,” he commented.
Eirgrid said on Tuesday that a spell of settled winter wind conditions would increase the possibility of a power outage, especially if the UK did not have a sufficient energy surplus to export across the Irish Sea.
Read more
Eirgrid warns weak winds could lead to winter blackouts
EU planning emergency intervention in electricity market
The Micro-Renewable Energy Federation (MREF) has called on Government to introduce financial supports to incentivise the purchase of storage batteries for farms, homes and businesses.
Group chair Pat Smith stated that such a move would allow farmers to charge the battery during the cheaper nighttime period and utilise the energy the during the day.
Increasing the number of farms and homes doing so would also address building concerns about the potential for winter power outages, as the grid would have a more stable electricity demand profile.
“If every home, farm and business premises in the country had just 10kWh of battery storage that would charge up during off-peak night time periods, or from onsite micro-generation of renewable power for discharge during periods of peak demand in the mornings or late afternoons, this would reduce peak time energy demand on the grid by up to 25m kWh/day,” said Smith.
“That would be a massive contribution to balancing energy loads right across the grid and would go some way towards addressing concerns about the stability and security of energy supplies into the future,” he commented.
Eirgrid said on Tuesday that a spell of settled winter wind conditions would increase the possibility of a power outage, especially if the UK did not have a sufficient energy surplus to export across the Irish Sea.
Read more
Eirgrid warns weak winds could lead to winter blackouts
EU planning emergency intervention in electricity market
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