Cork and Dublin power plants to reopen this winter in plan to avoid rolling blackouts
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The parts needed to reopen two power plants in Dublin and Cork are expected to arrive in October and November, increasing confidence that Ireland will avoid rolling blackouts this winter.
Warnings in June from national grid operator EirGrid prompted Environment Minister Eamon Ryan to sign off on a plan to import and rent six gas-powered generators, producing an additional 200MW of energy at a brownfield site in Dublin.
The €130m plan has been abandoned in the last week, with the department saying two offline plants at Whitegate in Cork and Huntstown in Dublin will be back up and running by the winter.
A number of sources have confirmed to the that shipping dates for the parts to carry out essential repairs on both stations have been received which would allow them be online before peak demand is reached.
An EirGrid spokesperson said that the additional plan would have been difficult to achieve, but the reopening of the two plants made emergency generation less necessary.
"This additional generation was one of a number of contingency measures being looked at by EirGrid. The outlook for the return of the two gas-fired generators is now much improved, and therefore the need for this emergency generation is reduced. It was also always recognised that the provision of this generation, within such a timeframe, was challenging. In this context, EirGrid has decided to end that procurement process.
Significant progress just now in EU energy council, as we agree a new approach to regulating trans-European energy infrastructure, which excludes EU funding for fossil fuels in projects of common interest. #KeepItInTheGround #ClimateAction #Fitfor55 #fossilfree #Ten_E pic.twitter.com/XMqT7Z8xrn
— Eamon Ryan (@EamonRyan) June 11, 2021
"[In] the short term we are closely monitoring the situation and working with conventional generators to ensure that plant performance and availability is maximised as well as working to optimise our operation of the grid."
A Department of Environment spokesperson said that the reopening of the plants would not require the importation of fracked gas.
"The Government's Policy Statement on the Importation of Fracked Gas provides that pending the outcome of a review of the security of energy supply of Ireland’s electricity and natural gas systems being carried out by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications it would not be appropriate for the development of any LNG terminals in Ireland to be permitted or proceeded with.
"Ireland’s current gas supply is considered to be adequate with gas imports from GB currently representing the biggest source of gas supplies in Ireland.
"However, the operation of both of these power plants which have both been in operation over a decade will not change the overall adequacy of Ireland’s gas supply."
The energy regulator the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) said that "there are challenges in certain areas in terms of responding to significant demand growth, the retirement of existing generating stations and other challenges resulting from our global leadership position in accommodating intermittent wind energy onto our electricity grid".