Ireland’s 2 million homes and small businesses are to be asked to avoid peak-time use of electricity in order to avoid blackouts this winter.
Even though the network is struggling to keep up with demand, drastic measures are now being taken, according to Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, who stated that the government does not anticipate energy shortages this winter.
The Commission for Energy Regulation (CRU) has said that as well as looking at large energy users, it is also “looking at proposals by network operators to assist in the reduction of peak demand by domestic and small business customers”.
The Irish Examiner reports, that the country had 13 system alerts on the power grid in the past two years, the same number as the entire preceding decade, as a ‘perfect storm of factors is straining the system.
The State’s power grid operator EirGrid has insisted that there was no threat of blackouts as two system alerts — previously called amber alerts — were issued in the past two days, bringing the total to four in the past month alone.
There have now been seven alerts this year, with EirGrid saying this week’s alerts were due to low wind, limited electricity imports, and forced outages at a number of generators causing “tight margins”.
However, the CRU has warned that energy margins will remain tight during winter, and it is continuing to work with key stakeholders to implement additional mitigation measures to further reduce risk during this period.
The CRU stated that it expects to publish its strategy for additional demand-reduction measures in the upcoming weeks, but in the meantime, it wants to impose “peak tariffs” on large industrial consumers by setting prices so high that they would be forced to reduce demand on the coldest winter nights.