Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 April 2004
6 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the reason system availability in power generation supplying electricity to the national grid has reduced from 88% in 1997 to 75% in 2004; and if he has discussed the implications with the ESB, the Commission for Electricity Regulation or Eirgrid. [10184/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraA feature of our ongoing economic success is the growth in electricity consumption and pressure on generating plants. All the older and less reliable plants in the system are ESB-owned. The ESB has taken measures to address the availability problem. A special action programme is in place to improve its plant availability. Its key target is to increase such availability from 76% in 2003 to 82% this year. To make sure the action programme delivers, the CER will impose penalties on a progressive basis.
One of the larger units at Tarbert, contributing 256 MW, has recently returned to service following an extensive outage, and a further 376 MW should return to service by the summer resulting in good availability over the following winter months. One of the main factors determining the reliability of the country's electricity supply is the production time availability of the current stock of generating plant. Owing to the need to schedule plant out of service for maintenance and the random breakdown of plant from time to time, availability can never be 100%.
My Department continually monitors the position in conjunction with the CER and the ESB. In the new market arrangements for electricity to be introduced by February 2006, the CER has put in place a mechanism which will reward all power stations for improving their availability.
I am glad to see the Department is monitoring the trends of system availability, forced outage and so on. The graph of the past five years shows a dramatic dip in system availability. In 1997 we had almost 88% availability, but in 2004 we are down to about 73%. It is not as if this was a sudden shock. There has been a steady downward trend. Is that not an issue of concern to the Minister? Is he raising questions with the ESB about the levels of efficiency in its plants?
More seriously, over the same five-year period, the system's outage rate has risen from 5% to over 15%. Those are two indicators of efficiency and how plant is run. Has the Minister discussed this concern either with the ESB, of which he is the major shareholder, or with Eirgrid?
It is not so much that there has been a dramatic reduction, it is that in the last number of years there has been a dramatic rise in annual demand for electricity. The indications are that over the next few years we will have an average annual percentage increase in demand of approximately 3% to 4.3%. Even with long-term investment by energy companies in generating plants, the position could still prove to be difficult in the medium-term. The country is well served by the existing plant, however. Even this year, which was forecast to be one of the most difficult ones, we were never seriously concerned by the required peak. Due to the input by the CER, my Department and the ESB, there has been a significant investment not only to obtain the maximum from the North-South interconnector capacity, but also there have been contracts with Northern suppliers for the importation of temporary generation. The situation has been well taken care of.
The existing plants are becoming less efficient, however.
There is investment in them.
The closure of the ISI and ISPAT may have got us through this winter. Will the new "use it or lose it" clause in the emissions trading system force power generation companies to maintain old plant with high CO2 emissions in operation, even though we have seen dramatic decreases in the efficiency of such plant in providing electricity? Is there a concern that the clause will keep our oldest plant in existence while not helping us to introduce new plant?
Is it not the case that Eirgrid and the ESB have been incredibly remiss in recent months by blaming the introduction of renewables on possible shocks in the system? The reality is that the existence of this ancient clapped-out plant, which involves some of the greatest shocks to the system when it goes out of power very quickly, has been the real cause of lack of stability and problems with the grid. Would the Minister agree that is the issue which provides the greatest threat of power outages, rather than the presence of renewables on the grid? On that basis, will the Minister direct the ESB to lift its moratorium on renewables and start developing them to back up this clapped-out plant?
The ESB is undertaking a huge investment, not only in power generation but also in the distribution network. It has a target programme for generation units to improve availability to 82% this year. As a result of benchmarking, the ESB expects to achieve 92% availability at best. The programme of work the ESB has set out in this respect will deliver an improvement in plant availability.
The Deputy should have no worries in respect of the "use it or lose it" clause. The ESB has set out an investment programme and the CER will keep a close eye on it. While there are differing opinions on renewable energy, it is the Government's stated policy to promote it. As the Deputy knows, however, there are technical difficulties that must be overcome due to the amount of renewable energy that we are now proposing to put on the grid.
Surely the technical difficulties with renewables are nothing compared with the massive technical difficulties with old plant that can only produce at 75% capacity?
That is the whole point.
Would the Minister agree with that?
No, I would not. There will always be technical difficulties with power generation. One cannot always expect to have 100% availability.
That is a problem with wind energy but not with conventional plant.
There are always such issues and one of the difficult issues over the last 18 months was the unfortunate incident in Tarbert.
