Blackout risk ‘unless grid updated’

If the vital upgrade to the national grid is not carried out the whole country will face blackouts, according to Gridlink project manager John Lowry.

Speaking at the Energy Cork breakfast briefing, Mr Lowry said that the changes in the generation mix and the increased use of wind energy means that unless the grid is urgently upgraded there is a serious danger of the system collapsing.

“The changes on system means that there is the potential for voltage collapse, there is the potential for blackout should we not invest in the infrastructure. It is as simple as that. This project is needed by 2020. The longer we go without this infrastructure, the greater the risk it presents to the system,” Mr Lowry said.

Mr Lowry outlined the manner in which the company had attempted to brief communities and engage with people to try and ease the building of the new 400kw transmission network that has ignited grassroots protests across the country.

He said that until people actually see a line drawn on a map indicating where the proposed power lines will run it is hard to get them to engage.

“We went out in September and that was the seismic change in this project in terms of people’s awareness of it and our experience would indicate that it is when lines are on a map that people see this is directly impacting them that they come out,” he said.

Since then Eirgrid has begun the process of going through the 35,000 submissions that they received which poses its own challenges including data protection challenges and the time it will take to sort through it all.

Mr Lowry raised the spectre that it may end up being the end users who have to foot the bill for the lengthy planning consultation.

“Planning processes that take time are a challenge and it does cost money and it may impact the end user, but is it the appropriate thing to do,” he said.

While a number of proponents have called for the undergrounding of the entire length of the new 400kw system, Mr Lowry pointed out that not only were there economic hurdles to this but there were also technical hurdles.

Following the meeting Energy Cork held their agm and elected Donal Kissane of Bord Gáis Networks to be the new chairman.