Energy Infrastructure

Tuesday, 28 November 2023

Questions (125)

Mattie McGrath

Question:

125. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to provide the mapped locations and acreage around power stations scheduled for closure, decommissioned, and active; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52278/23]

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Written answers

Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications

The All-Island Generation Capacity Statement (GCS) is an annual report from EirGrid (Transmission System Operator) examining the likely balance between electricity demand and supply for the next 10 years. The GCS includes comprehensive information on energy generation capacities and infrastructure in Ireland. The GCS also includes a table of all the dispatchable generation capacity in Ireland, and documents information on known plant closures.

The GCS 2022-2031 report, which is published on EirGrids website, noted the following information on plants that were potentially at risk of closure in the near future:

Plant	Capacity	Fuel	Information noted in GCS 2022-2031
Aghada (AT1)	90MW	Distillate Oil	Scheduled to close by end 2023
Tarbert	592 MW	Heavy Fuel Oil	Unit has been placed on outage until Dec 2023. Scheduled to close thereafter
Moneypoint	820MW	Coal	Modelled as not available from October 2024
Edenderry	118MW	Peat	Will now run exclusively on biomass from Jan 2024

As part of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities Security of Supply Programme, plans have been put in place to extend the operating life of a number of older generation plants for a temporary period under the "retain existing units" workstream until new capacity has been delivered to replace them through the Capacity Remuneration Mechanism.

The GCS 2023-2032 is expected to be published by EirGrid in the coming weeks with an updated assessment of the balance between electricity generation capacity and demand and as above with updated information in relation to anticipated closures.

The acreage and status of power stations are a matter for the relevant electricity generation companies and developers.

Question No. 126 answered with Question No. 124.