Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 March 2014
224. Deputy Michael Colreavy asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if there has been a study carried out into the potential energy production from hydroelectricity here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10494/14]
View answer225. Deputy Michael Colreavy asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the amount of energy that is currently generated from hydroelectricity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10495/14]
View answer228. Deputy Michael Colreavy asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the studies completed into the different variable outputs from differing renewable energy sources; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10498/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 224, 225 and 228 together.
The large hydro resources available in Ireland have been largely exploited and, together with all smaller developments, now comprise a total installed capacity of around 213 MW. This figure excludes Turlough Hill which is a pumped storage system.
A resource study titled "The Small-Scale Hydro-electric Potential of Ireland" was completed by the then Department of Energy in 1985 which concluded the additional available capacity was 38 MW. This is a very small resource and would be consistent with expectations from small hydro developments on Irish rivers. As it is deemed a small resource, little further investigation has been performed since.
In 2012 electricity generated from hydro was 802 GigaWattHours (GWh). Using normalised figures to adjust for annual variations in climate, as per EU Directive 2009/28/EC, hydro accounted for 759 GWh or 2.7% of gross electricity consumption in 2012. This is provided primarily by 14 large scale hydro-electric generators.
A number of major studies have been carried out by EirGrid over the past number of years to investigate the levels of renewable generation that can be securely accommodated on the power system of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The commercial viability of each renewable energy technology is a matter for the developers themselves. The EirGrid studies have considered the requirements in terms of infrastructure and also the operational implications of managing a power system with large amounts of variable generation sources. These studies include the following:
- Summary of Studies on Rate of Change of Frequency (RoCoF) events on the All-Island System (Published - August 2014);
- Ensuring a Secure, Reliable and Efficient Power System in a Changing Environment (Published June 2010);
- Facilitation of Renewables Study (Published June 2010);
- All Island Grid Study (Published January 2008).
All of the studies are available on the EirGrid website at www.eirgrid.com.
