Ireland’s power landscape is shifting due to both increased demand driven by the expansion of data centres, and the retirement of fossil fuelled power plants. These factors have supported an increase in Irish hourly day-ahead price spreads vs GB.
Like much of Europe, Ireland has set ambitious renewable energy targets, aiming for 20 GW of offshore wind by 2040 (current capacity being only 25 MW), alongside 2030 targets of 9 GW of onshore wind (up from 4.5 GW) and 8 GW of solar (up from 1 GW).
With significant growth in renewable capacity, firm plant closures, and rising power demand, interconnectors will be an increasingly important source of flexibility in balancing supply and demand. Higher dependence on non-dispatchable renewable power sources to meet rising demand increases the importance of this flexibility.
Interconnectors will enable Ireland as an island market to export surplus RES energy when prices are low, and import energy when domestic supply is insufficient, generating value by capitalising on power price volatility and extrinsic spreads between Ireland and neighbouring countries.
Private investors and EirGrid are advancing the expansion of interconnectors in Ireland, with projects including:
- Greenlink interconnector, planned to commission by late 2024, increasing Ireland’s capacity to Great Britain from 1 GW to 1.5 GW.
- Celtic interconnector (700MW to France), which will be Irelands first direct link to mainland Europe with the Celtic Interconnector to France, planned for 2026.
- Additional interconnectors such as LirIC (700 MW to Scotland) and MaresConnect (750 MW to Wales) are in early development stages.
David Duncan (Director of LNG & Gas) will be attending Gastech 2024 in Houston across 17-19 September 2024.
Please get in touch with David (david.duncan@timera-energy.com) if you would like to catch up on the services Timera Energy provide, LNG Bridge, our quarterly Global Gas Service or anything else.