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Securing Ireland’s future energy supply
20/4/2022
6 min read
Feature
In the context of the global energy price crisis and the government’s ambitious Climate Action Plan, the supply and security of energy in the Republic of Ireland is a controversial topic. The Energy Institute’s Ireland Branch Chair Owen McQuade reports on how representatives from across the country’s energy sector aim to reduce prices and increase security.
In late 2021, there was much debate in Ireland about the security of the electricity network. Increasing demand was driven largely by the fastest growing economy in Europe and in part by the inward investment of US technology companies choosing Ireland as home for their data centres, which could make up nearly a quarter of Ireland’s electricity demand by 2030. Now with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the focus has expanded to include the security of natural gas.
Ireland’s gas supply
At present, over 50% of Ireland’s electrical power is generated from natural gas, one third of all Irish homes are heated by natural gas and two thirds of Dublin homes. Around 30% of Ireland’s gas comes from the Corrib field off the west coast of Ireland, with the balance coming from the interconnectors with Moffat in Scotland. Corrib is in decline and has around 10 years remaining at current rates of production. Ireland has no LNG import terminal, no gas storage facilities within the country and now has a ban on new gas exploration offshore. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, and its impact on European and UK gas markets, has further underlined Ireland’s supply and cost control vulnerability.
Tom O’Brien, Chief Executive of Nephin Energy, which owns the Corrib gas field, sees the response to Ireland’s energy security as having several strands: ‘There is an old saying, “No one person can whistle a symphony; it takes a whole orchestra to play one.” For the foreseeable future Ireland will need gas as well as renewables to meet its energy requirements. Our energy mix needs to be reliable, affordable and sustainable. In recent years the focus has been on sustainability and Ireland’s over-reliance on fossil fuels.’