Transmission Outages

Transmission Outages

In its role as TSO for Ireland, EirGrid is responsible for developing an annual program of transmission outages. In a given year, outages of transmission equipment might be required for a variety of reasons:

• Routine maintenance
• Corrective maintenance
• Connection of new plant to the system
• Decommissioning of plant
• Plant refurbishment / upgrading / modification
• Power system restoration tests

A high level description of the transmission outage planning process is available HERE. EirGrid’s policy for prioritising the use of outage windows is available HERE. 

An All Island Yearly Transmission Outage Program is developed and updated each month in conjunction with SONI (System Operator Northern Ireland). Under the current transmission outage planning process outages for a given calendar year are not finalised until March of that year. As such, the program contains outage information for the current calendar year only. The most up to date All Island Yearly Transmission Outage Program is available HERE

The Transmission Outage Program (TOP) begins in late March each year and ends in late October, in line with Daylight Savings Time. This period of the year is proportionally the lowest in terms of peak daily system demand and is as such optimal in terms of granting transmission outages.

On a fortnightly basis during the transmission outage season EirGrid publishes its TOP Three Week Outlook report, providing details of all transmission outages scheduled to take place in the following three weeks:

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