EirGrid has 'warned of power supply challenges since 2017'
Response 9 By Amber August On Issued To Margins Picture: 10 Power Larry And System Eirgrid The Alerts August On Were Cummins In Tight
An expert on power systems has said Government surprise at energy shortages is "strange", as EirGrid has been highlighting the discrepancy in predicted supply and demand since 2017.
Barry Hayes, lecturer and principal investigator in power systems engineering at University College Cork, said that the risks to supply "should not come as a surprise".
"These issues have been developing and have been flagged over a number of years. We have seen an increase in the number of system alerts issued by EirGrid recently," he said. "EirGrid would publish an annual planning statement where they look at forecast grid capacity over the next 10 years and forecast gaps and how to address them.
"If you look at those documents back as far as 2017, they have highlighted tighter supply-demand margins and challenges due to the growth in data centres' demand.
"I found the comments strange that there was no early warning system in place. It was very well known in the industry."
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said on Monday that the Government "was taken a bit by surprise" about the current challenges to the energy supply as a number of system alerts have been issued by EirGrid when the country's power system was under strain.
Amber alerts were issued by EirGrid, the transmission system operator, on Tuesday, August 9, and Wednesday, August 10, in response to tight margins on the power system.
An amber alert means that the buffer between demand for electricity and the available supply is “smaller than optimum”. It does not indicate a loss of electricity supply.
A review of the situation, to be led by former secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach, Dermot McCarthy, will examine why potential power shortages were not predicted at an earlier stage, as well as whether the energy regulator and the operator of the national grid have handled the situation properly.
The former head of ESB international, Don Moore, denied that the Government was unaware of the energy capacity situation.
Mr Moore told RTÉ radio’s show that “everyone” knew of the problem, “they just hoped it would go away.”
"EirGrid and the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) both reported to the Department of Energy so they had shared this information about capacity," he said.
"EirGrid had warned of this impending problem in a report in 2017, the information was on their website for everybody to read."
A spokesperson for the Taoiseach said that Mr Martin's comments were accurate, while a spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications said that the CRU has a programme of actions underway to secure energy supply for the year.
The CRU has "statutory responsibility to ensure security of electricity supply. It has a duty to monitor electricity supplies and to take measures as it considers necessary to protect security of supply".