EirGrid chief: People can sleep in their beds this winter confident there will be no blackouts 

Mark Foley told the committee the resumption of generation at the Whitegate and Huntstown plants along with higher wind energy output will mean that blackouts will be avoided.

People can "sleep in their beds at night" confident that there will be no blackouts this winter, an Oireachtas committee has been told.

Mark Foley, chief executive of national grid operator EirGrid, told the committee on environment and climate action that his company "has a plan" that will avoid power outages this winter. 

Fears have been raised that Ireland may struggle to meet its power generation needs into the winter after a €130m plan to secure additional generators was abandoned in August.

However, Mr Foley told the committee the resumption of generation at the Whitegate and Huntstown plants along with higher wind energy output will mean that blackouts will be avoided.

The winter period is a time when we expect to have very high levels of wind on the system, I think it's reasonable to conclude we have very limited reasons for concern. 

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"We expect to have a secure supply over the winter period, and unless something exceptional occurs, then I think people can sleep in their beds at night, and be satisfied that they will have electricity."

Mr Foley said data centres will account for around 30% of new usage of power in the coming years.

"We should acknowledge that data centres have made a massive contribution as has the ICT sector in general, to the social experiment that has had 2m people working from home over the last 18 months.

"I think it's correct to say that a significant amount of Ireland's forecasted growth for electricity will come from data centres, and that's a fact. But it's much more in the order of 30% than the 70% that was misquoted earlier in the week. 

"Everybody understands that such growth in demand needs to be accommodated by an appropriate policy framework which seeks to ensure that all parties collaborate on the approach which responds to the temporary constraints which exist in the current system."

Mr Foley said EirGrid's upcoming strategic plan for the grid will lay out how it can be made secure for the "next 20 years".

Professor Barry McMullin of Dublin City University had earlier told the committee a moratorium on the building of data centres is needed.

"Combining effective climate action with the continued rapid expansion of a sector that relies on additional energy consumption is akin to trying to run down an up-escalator.

"Given the related, very near term impact on the stability of the electricity grid, I consider that there is a strong argument for an immediate moratorium on such expansion: at the very least pending full and detailed assessment of the actions which will be required to meet the carbon budget constraint for 2021 to 2024."

Jim Gannon of the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) told the committee that recent capacity auctions were not successful because of two key reasons. 

He said Ireland had purchased 500MW of capacity but this had not materialised and that there is "little appetite" from the energy production industry to take part in a more recent auction.

Mr Gannon said wholesale energy prices are up across Europe in part due to a lack of wind this year and domestic prices were being impacted by this. 

The CRU told consumers to shop around this winter as prices rise.