Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 July 2004
193 Mr. Murphy asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the reason the ESB did not co-operate with his renewal energy policy targets by not putting adequate grid resources in place. [20952/04]
View answerUpgrades to the electricity network generally are matters for the network operators in consultation with the Commission for Energy Regulation.
Grid upgrade requirements for the connection of wind farms are specific to the location and capacity of the proposed wind farms and interaction with other proposed wind farms in close proximity. As a general rule to date, even where wind farms secure planning permission, they proceed to the construction phase only after the award of a power purchase agreement — primarily under my Department's alternative energy requirement programme. Grid capacity demand cannot therefore be predicted even by reference to wind farm projects with planning permission. Furthermore, capacity demand cannot be identified in advance of formal applications for connections by wind farm developers. In these circumstances, it would not be cost effective to require the network operator to make significant investment in grid upgrades which might or might not subsequently be sought by wind farm developers.
