Where did all the power go?

corminators

I see we're importing 20% of our electricity tonight... maybe the late late show should be cancelled and we all turn in early?

http://smartgriddashboard.eirgrid.com/#all

Larbre34

Who gives a ballix of a Friday night?

corminators

Ya will when you trip over your beer in the dark

Strumms

The demand for electricity has been steadily growing...one of the catalysts is our rapid population growth..the main catalyst in fact.

approximately 5.01 million people are living in this country currently..

in 1991 for example there were 3.52 million people living in this country according to that census.

a 1.49 million population increase in 30 years... thousands upon thousands more homes, businesses and facilities demanding and requiring electricity...

Approximately a population growth of 29.74% in 30 years...

the infrastructure to provide that electricity is extremely expensive in building it and to operate it.....so being bought in it seems..

That 15% coal mix is all being burned down in Moneypoint. One old and unloved station is now of systemic importance to the generation of juice.

Blackouts this winter are almost a certainty.

italodisco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118092156#Comment_118092156

There's only 1 solution to the blackout issue, if it happens then the public will need to mobilise and attack Data Centres.

Exciting times

eronayne

Two power stations offline since yesterday and moneypoint down to 50% capacity

Ubbquittious

Can't bate a bit of green coal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118092265#Comment_118092265

with imported nuclear electricity mixed in. Precious little wind.

The only big modern power consumer I can think of these days is the gaming console. Between that and the TV monitor a teen would be burning 400W.

Pherekydes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118092095#Comment_118092095

1.49 is 42.3% of 3.52.

Is there anything to be said for another data centre?

L1011

For renewables to be that low, its not very windy anywhere right now. We export lots when it is.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118092095#Comment_118092095

After 2008 electricity consumption dropped year-on-year and it has only rebounded in the past 5 or 6 years. Main reasons for the drop are recession and increased efficiency of electrical devices. Around 2008 about 17% of electricity consumption was from incandescent bulbs, most of which are gone now and their replacement might only use 2-3%

MrMusician18

The way people are going on, you'd swear the threat of blackouts would mean people would have no power for days. Grid management blackouts are rolling and would typically have a half hour duration, until the grid is stabilized.

We are not talking about the apocalypse here. The world didn't end when there was a fault locally at the substation, and won't end with this either. You'll just have to boil your egg later.

Ubbquittious

This is true. I don't mind an auld blackout for a couple of hours.. light a few candles, cuddle up with a fine beour

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093819#Comment_118093819

blackouts without brownouts. you'll be cursing the ESB if a brownout destroys the equipment in your home.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093705#Comment_118093705

What about TVs? Anything over I think 90W is rated G now. Power usage for TVs has to have halved at least.

Atlantic Dawn

It's exactly like the health service, huge sums of money invested but poorly managed and when any kind of strain comes on it completely buckles.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093865#Comment_118093865

Had brownouts here before, nothing broke. A couple of things behind a SMPS will stay working if the brownout voltage hovers above ~85v

RandomViewer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093743#Comment_118093743

Food production factory loses power ,lots of product in the bin, can the ESB cover all the claims?

RandomViewer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093877#Comment_118093877

I know the little Nordmende one in the kitchen which is about 8 years old is 24w, guessing the newer ones are even less,

ratracer

Is it time to have an adult conversation about nuclear power yet?

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093877#Comment_118093877

Desktop computing machines in offices as well, a Pentium 4 or early Core 2 box from the mid 2000s would have used a few 100w. Now a lot of those have been replaced by low power small form factor yokes and the old ones ending up in skips. Tumble dryers use much less now, those €5000 plastic jaccuzis from China have all either packed up or been turfed out, better heating controls for d'Immersion.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093903#Comment_118093903

The vast majority of factories producing perishables will have back-up supply onsite. Same with critical infrastructure.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093914#Comment_118093914

It's been had and the pragmatic decision that has been made is that Ireland is happy to consume Nuclear power from another Country but haven't the wherewithal to build their own.

RandomViewer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093923#Comment_118093923

Large operations yes but smaller concerns like bakeries normally wouldn't, insurance doesn't cover for people on the premises in a blackout so people sent home,who's going to pay for lost production?

think there's been some pretty poor management in the electricity sector and a few heads rolling might waken them up a bit,

techman1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093914#Comment_118093914

no it was time to have an adult conversation 20 years ago, its now time to have an up and running nuclear plant to replace Moneypoint. We didn't do that therefore we need to keep Moneypoint running for years yet, it should have been put on the Moneypoint site where the cable infrastructure is already present , Simples

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093918#Comment_118093918

Desktops have been replaced by game consoles as the big electricity gobblers.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118094005#Comment_118094005

PS5 and Series X draw around 200w average I think, then add to that the infrastructure needed to support millions of users around the world.

kirving

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093970#Comment_118093970

And at the very same time, we have the government hammering anyone who dares to try and keep an older car on the road.

The government pretend to lead by example with grandiose statements about 1M electric cars by 2030, but then quietly remove EV grants.

They install "smart" meters in all houses, but not the kind that can remotely **** off car chargers during high load periods.

And then we have a coal fired plant that will push out more emissions in an hour than I probably would in my lifetime.

(Obviously electric cars should replace ICE, but only when the ICE car has reached the end of its useful life.)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093914#Comment_118093914

Bit of a pointless one really, it's far too expensive (even if it could be built at current prices). For the amount of money the Brits are going to pay for a single power plant we could kit out every house in the country with batteries that could hold a couple of days' power. Import overnight (when/if necessary), even without the wind blowing we'd be fine. That could be done without planning, objections, drawn out legal process, nuclear waste lasting til the Earth gets burned by the sun, etc.

The nuclear plants that are there should be used (same as old cars) as much as possible.

GoogleBot

Build lifepo4 battery bank and power your house on blackouts days.

isn't what you do with the food and water already?

Dakota Dan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118092095#Comment_118092095

Of course it has nothing to do with the geniuses that shut down the coal and peat power stations.

AndyBoBandy

What hasn’t helped the situation was Whitegate & Huntstown power stations being down for most of the year (Huntstown has just recently returned to service, and Whitegate hopefully in the coming weeks). These 2 stations account for about 20% of our electricity consumption.

the problem is that 20% had to be backfilled from elsewhere, meaning other older machines that normally wouldn’t be run so often were up running for longer periods, thus exposing them to higher risk of potential mechanical failure, as well as meaning there was little to no ‘emergency reserve’ given the emergency reserve was already being run all year to cover for Huntstown & Whitegate.

In tha last few days a number of the ‘reserve’ generation capacity have had mechanical issues themselves resulting in the amber alert this week.

I don’t know what happened in Huntstown but the Gas Turbine in Whitegate had a fairly rare and fairly extreme mechanical failure, which meant it’s down almost 10 months now… and typically the longest that machine should ever be down for would be about 6 weeks every 3-4 years (with smaller/shorter maintenance shutdowns in between).

beggars_bush

Maybe all the extra gadgets, tvs, computers, charging electric cars are putting too much strain on our electricity supply system?

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093914#Comment_118093914

It would take 15 years minimum to setup a plant here even if all the stars aligned, zero power before 2035 so you still have to provide interim power sources.

You'd also need serious spinning reserve and backup. And it would only provide baseload (at twice the market rate, indexed linked for 35 years) so you'd still need peaking plant. And nuclear is the poster boy for Single Point Of Failure, and Delays and Cost Overruns, and dropping off the grid for extended periods of time with zero warning.

It would be quicker and cheaper to store hydrogen from wind power in old salt caverns or disused gas fields. And roll out the interconnecter to France (they are dropping nuclear from 75% to 50% and spending a fortune retrofitting them). Greenlight the Silvermines pumped storage. Insulate the houses.

touts

Wait til the Brits shut down the interconnector in retaliation for the French shutting off electricity to the channel Islands.

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093914#Comment_118093914

See Hinkley Point C omnishambles in the UK. I have no reason to believe we'd do any better than the UK, who have been dealing with large nuclear developments since dot.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118095414#Comment_118095414

Peat was a dirty and inefficient fuel. It was shocking that new or replacement plants were still being commissioned this century. Vote grabbing stuff in the Bertie Ahern and Mary O'Rourke era.

Peat is cleaner than Coal as it is pure decomposed vegatation with no other rocks/minerals mixed in.

An inefficient fuel with a low calorific value which is in bountiful on your doorstep is better than a fuel with a higher calorific value which must be sourced abroad.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118096385#Comment_118096385

It's a shame to waste turf on generating electricity for boring data centres when it could be used to provide lovely cosy turf fires for people

Roger the cabin boy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093970#Comment_118093970

The Irish state running a nuclear power plant? 👀

A better solution would be for the Irish state to join the 1st world and enable the micro-production of electricity.

Not in a "You pay X but we pay X/Y" format being proposed atm.

It should be a full credit system. The end user only pays for the net usage. Like the US system.

Do that, and the thousands who have EVs will out up solar panels and become exporters of electricity.

I can't believe that we can't do this here currently.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097009#Comment_118097009

They are bringing in a feed in tariff soon so you'll get paid 4c for every kw you import but you'll have to pay about 25 or more for each one you import.

Darc19

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093743#Comment_118093743

Shhhh...

Don't be ruining the scaremongering of tabloid newspapers with insight and truth 😁

Ger Roe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097009#Comment_118097009

I agree,

Instead of hammering the domestic consumer to pay more for using less electricity (most of us are doing our best already and have cut consumption by about as much as we can) enable the householder to generate at least some of their own requirement and reduce the demand at the source.

Is that too simple, because then the energy supply companies would kick up over the reduced demand that they pretend to encourage?. No one is interested in helping domestic consumers to help themselves, they just want us to pay more for the less electricity we use on the existing national generating model.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097075#Comment_118097075

There are a lot of new power companies that entered the market in recent years thanks to d'EU and they are indeed kicking up about people generating their own. You even have the ESB insinuating that electricity from a grid tie inverter is inferior to other sources.

It is all a racket. They want the €1200-€2500 leaving every household every year and going into their pocket but they don't want to go through any extra trouble for it. Obviously they all engage in lobbying and the regulator/politicians stupidly pay attention to their whinging.

Roger the cabin boy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097059#Comment_118097059

Jeysus, the bureaucracy of the Irish state is a monster.

The ESB and its champions need to get out of the 19th century.

Darc19

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118094067#Comment_118094067

Grants are there to try and keep EVs close to diesel and petrol alternatives.

As technology improves and economies of scale come into play, prices will come down substantially and grants will not be warranted.

Considering how simple an ev engine is, prices will probably drop below current diesel and petrol engine prices.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118096174#Comment_118096174

No. Our gadgets are far more efficient than in the past. Only electric cars in that list would cause strain.

it’s obviously the closure of the plants. Bit let’s not get excited on one data point. Later on today we’ll probably be exporting power.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097230#Comment_118097230

Ahem, Game Consoles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097251#Comment_118097251

You have to prove that, anyway I had an Atari something it other in the 80s.

There should be some figures in per capita production vs population and GDP growth. In the UK gdp per capita grew when carbon use per capita fell, since 1990.

I don't need to prove that a modern game console is burning huge amounts of electricity. It is on a label on the product.