Facilitation of Renewables

Facilitation of Renewables

The EU renewable energy target for Ireland is 16% energy from renewable sources in the electricity, heating and transport sectors by 2020. Coupled with the national target of 40% electricity generation from renewable sources by 2020, Ireland faces a serious challenge.  EirGrid fully supports these targets and is committed to playing its role in the development of a sustainable energy future for Ireland. To reinforce this, in March 2007, EirGrid published its Renewables Policy which states in part:

“As a core part of our corporate objective of becoming a World Class TSO, EirGrid intends to be a world leader in the facilitation of renewables.  In order to achieve this, EirGrid is committed to proactively working with all stakeholders and customers to ensure all government targets in relation to renewables are realized while ensuring the continued security, safety and reliability of the power system.”

Facilitation of Renewables Forum

On 18th February 2009 EirGrid held the first Facilitation of Renewables public forum.  The objective was to present to the industry, EirGrid’s ongoing work in relation to renewables facilitation and to stimulate discussion and debate around the issues relating to renewables facilitation.

The final report was presented on 10th June 2010. 

Current Renewable Generation Position in Ireland

Provisional year to date fuel mix for the Republic of Ireland:

EirGrid's Role in the Facilitation of Renewable Generation

As operator of the transmission systems of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the EirGrid group of companies plays an important role.  This involves planning and developing the necessary transmission infrastructure which is required to transport the power from generation sources to demand.  This also involves ensuring the power system can be operated reliably, safely and securely and is robust enough to withstand sudden changes in system conditions.  As the Single Electricity Market Operator (SEMO), EirGrid and SONI are jointly responsible for operating the wholesale market for Electricity where renewable generation receive remuneration for the energy they produce.

Some specific projects where EirGrid and SONI are working directly to facilitate renewable generation in Ireland are outlined below.

Gate 3: Getting Renewable Generation Connected - EirGrid and SONI have responsibility for working with parties, either generation or demand, who want to connect to the transmission system.  A design for the physical connection to the power system must be developed and the impact of each proposed connection on the power system must be studied to ensure that there is adequate transmission capacity to facilitate it and that the impact on power system quality is understood.  These studies may result in the need for additional network capacity to ensure the proposed generator can export its full capacity or in the need for power system devices such as capacitor banks to ensure power system quality is maintained.

To plan for the connection and to study the impact of hundreds of wind farm connection applications, a new approach known as the 'Gate Approach' was developed in coordination with the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) and the industry.  In this approach, large batches of connection applications (or Gates) are studied together.  The latest Gate, Gate 3 , consists of just over 3500 MW of wind farm connections (over 200 individual wind farms). The applications within each gate are grouped according to location and a connection method for each group is designed.   

Grid 25: Taking a Longer Term View of Transmission Development - EirGrid and SONI have responsibility for planning the development of the transmission system in the years ahead to ensure there is adequate transmission capacity to cater for anticipated demand and generation.  Traditionally this was done on a rolling 7 year basis. It was recognised that a longer term view of transmission development was needed given the long lead times to develop critical infrastructure and given the scale of proposed renewable generation developments.  A new approach was required which recognizes the changing nature of the power system which is evolving from one with large amounts of conventional predictable generation to one with more distributed variable generation sources.

GRID25 is a new approach to the development of the power system and employs a probabilistic approach to identify the required level of investment in the power system out to 2025.

TSO Facilitation of Renewables Studies - The All-Island Grid study concluded that up to 42% of renewable generation could be accommodated on the power system of Ireland given the required infrastructure and an investigation into the underlying technical aspects of a power system with large amounts of variable generation sources.  The characteristics and behavior of the power system with large amounts of variable generation sources will be fundamentally different to the power system of today.  Detailed modelling and simulations are required to better understand how the power system will behave and to understand what operational measures are required to ensure the same levels of stability and security as today.

To address these issues, EirGrid and SONI are conducting a series of technical studies which have the objective of increasing our understanding of the power system with levels of renewable generation, particularly wind power, as we forecast them to be in the year 2020.  This will help us set standards which are appropriate to the needs of the future power system and to develop operational practices which will ensure the continued security and stability of the power system.

Renewable Support Scheme - REFIT - The Department for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources launched a new initiative on 1st May 2006 to increase the use of renewable energy technologies in electricity production.  The Renewable Energy Feed In Tariff (REFIT) Programme will support the construction of an initial target of at least 400 megawatts of new renewable energy powered electricity generating plants over the fifteen year life of the support programme.  Most of the new energy will come from wind projects.  However the programme is also available to biomass powered projects, small scale hydro projects and projects capturing harmful land fill gas emissions.

The All-Island Grid Study - In January 2008 the Energy Minister Eamon Ryan and his Northern counterpart Nigel Dodds, published the All-Island Grid Study, the most advanced and comprehensive of its kind in the world.  The study examines: a range of generation portfolios for Ireland; the ability of the power system to handle various amounts of electricity from renewable sources; the investment levels required, and the positive externalities that would accrue with regard to climate change and security of supply.

This study is the first full assessment of the ability of the power system to facilitate significant penetration of renewable energy onto the system with the primary objective of assessing the technical feasibility and costs and benefits of different renewable penetration scenarios.

Study Overview

• Workstream 1  - Renewable Energy Resource Assessment
• Workstream 2A  - Assessment of Suitable Generation Portfolios for the All-Island System in 2020
• Workstream 2B  - Wind Variability Management Studies
• Workstream 3
• Workstream 4  - Analysis of Impacts and Benefits