The Cathaoirleach welcomed Liam Ryan and Eoghan O’Sullivan from from Eirgrid to give an online presentation on the current public consultation “Shaping our Future Electricity”:

Eirgrid is owned by the Irish Government and is a regulated utility. They do not generate electricity but bring it from generators across the grid and operate some interconnectors with neighbouring electricity grids. They run the wholesale electricity market thus ensuring electricity is always available at the most economic price possible. The grid is upgraded or added to grid in response to government policy where it is an essential response to secure Ireland’s electricity supply.  EirGrid ensures there is enough electricity, then safely delivers this directly to large energy users and all around the grid. Electricity is a solution to Climate Change because it can be generated from clean and renewable sources with no carbon emissions.

The Government has asked Eirgrid to prepare the grid so that at least 70% of Ireland’s electricity can come from renewable sources by 2030. Achieving this goal will need flexibility and innovation throughout the electricity sector. Some approaches depend on the actions of stakeholders to succeed and all approached will need timely public consent. More electricity will be carried across this grid than ever before, and most of this power will come from renewable sources. Power output from renewable sources depends on the weather and renewable electricity is typically generated far away from where most electricity is used.

The grid needs to carry at least 10 GW more renewable electricity by 2030 – double 2020 levels:

·         Generation Led – put clean electricity generation close to where most power used.

Government policies will determine the best location for new renewable generation and the preferred locations will consider the strength of the existing grid and the local demand. This is likely to lead to more offshore wind generation close to major cities and less need for onshore

wind generation. It will require 38 projects at cost of €.7bn with 4.5GW offshore wind on east coast and 1GW from solar energy and inland wind farms

·         Developer Led – Let developers decide where to locate clean electricity generation

Continue to connect new sources of renewable energy where developers request but this will create a need for a very large number of projects that cannot be delivered by 2030 and will see more power created than can be used. It would require 77 projects at a cost of €1.9bn and is highly unlikely to succeed as a strategy

·         Technology-Led – Try new ways to move clean electricity across the country

This is the use of innovative ways to bring clean electricity from the west to the east coast and will involve isolated underground cables carrying high voltage direct current but these cables would not integrate with the existing grid and would need large, expensive and complex converter stations at both ends. Would require 46 projects at a cost of €1.5bn and would be very challenging to complete in time.

·         Demand Led – Put large electricity users close to sources of clean electricity generation

Government policies would determine the best location for large scale electricity users such as  data centres and could use 27% of all electricity on the grid by 2030. Such consumers would locate closer to sources where the grid is already strong. It would require 41 projects at a cost of €0.5bn

The final roadmap will be a combination of the above.

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There are many technical issues to running the grid when power comes from renewable sources and the principal challenge is the different frequency to electricity generated by burning fossil fuels as new technical solutions, policies and tools are needed.

Public consultation has commenced and will continue to 14^th June to hear the views of stakeholders:

·         Working with Irish Rural Link, Chambers Ireland, National Youth Council to host workshops

·         Hosting an Industry forum for generation companies and developers, large energy users and suppliers.

·         Hosting a Civic Society Forum including academia, agriculture, community, environment, sustainable development and social justice

·         Hosting a public forum like the citizens assembly.

In the County Roscommon area the North Connacht 110Kv Project is ongoing an in relation to the future the growth of renewable energy sources is expected to be derived from onshore wind.

The public consultation opened in March and will run to 14^th June.

The members welcomed the presentation and had a number of observations and questions for Mr. Daly:

·         Where we have failed is proposing one or two turbines beside houses rather than investing in a proper windfarm.

·         Where is the off shore wind in the North West?

·         When will households be paid for excess energy produced by solar energy?

·         Windfarms should be constructed in a sustainable fashion – are there measures in place to

·         What are the prospects of getting a decrease in energy costs for the consumer?

·         €200m spent on the Lanesborough power station and now it will be taken out of commission

·         There are delays in getting access to the grid for projects

·         Costs of wind turbines onshore vs offshore?

·         Solar energy – farm buildings could be used for solar panels and to feed back to the grid.

·         What about Bord na Mona?

·         Are there any plans for nuclear energy?

·         There always appears to be objections to wind energy.

·         What is the position on anaerobic digestors?

·         Dialogue is very important for new projects.

·         There is a huge emphasis on wind energy which can be unpredictable. Why is there so little interest in pumped hydrostorage and exporting excess to France?

The Chief Executive thanked Mr. Ryan for the presentation and the introduction of the topic of carbon neutral electricity and the implications for the country. In producing a strategy going forward it is important to have strategic alignment that has a solid position and Government support and takes into account local objections. The future strategy will be important in terms of undergrounding versus overgrounding of cables and the public will need to be clear as to what is or is not allowed.

Mr. Ryan responded to the questions:

·         The plan will have to facilitate electricity generated from 70% renewables by 2030 and some will come from all three areas

·         In the North-West the first phase will be to generate energy from off shore wind.

·         In the last renewable support scheme there were a number of successful solar community based projects. Eirgrid will be consulting with Irish Rural Link.

·         Eirgrid will also be engaging with the Irish Wind Energy Association and the Department.

·         When the cost of carbon is added on, electricity will be more expensive but prices should reduce over time

·         There are no plans to introduce nuclear power as Ireland is too small scale.

·         Eirgrid are open to new technologies including anaerobic digestion.

·         The challenge in pumped storage is the capital investment costs. Again with nuclear energy if we export to France we may also be able to import electricity.

·         With regard to under and overgrounding of cables, Eirgrid have learned from projects to date but there are some places where cables cannot be underground.