National Control Centre

National Control Centre

The National Control Centre (NCC), which is located in Dublin, carries out the intricate task of seeking to match electricity production to customer demand.  The NCC's objective is to operate the transmission system in the most economical manner, consistent with safety, security, continuity, quality and environmental standards. 

Please refer to the Dispatch and Scheduling Processes document for additional information.

Managing power generation capacity to meet customer demand, which varies on a daily, weekly and seasonal basis, is a very complex task.  Available generation must match customer demand on an instantaneous basis, to maintain system frequency at 50Hz.

The NCC must plan for unforeseen events, such as demand exceeding expectations or the loss of an on-line generator.  The deployment of electricity generators in the most cost-efficient manner is supported by the use of sophisticated on-line software.

The NCC monitors the voltage on the transmission system and the loading of transformers.  In the event of a fault on a transmission line, it may redistribute production to avoid overload on the remaining lines and disruption of supply to customers.