Energy infrastructure

Moneypoint ( and tarbert ) are the back up to our back up .. and I agree they should be kept available for a lot longer than 2025 .. but they're not really backing up wind on a day to day or hour to hour basis .. largely that's gas .. as we get more storage ,(chemical ,flywheel ect ,) on the system that levels the peaks and troughs of wind energy coming in , allowing the gas turbines to be used more and more predictably ...

Moneypoint and tarbert are then available for a predictable period of extremely high use , ( December ) , a major breakdown ( as happened last year with 2 gas stations , or a very calm weather period ..

Moneypoint is unfortunately far from a backup, it has been consistently providing anything from 8% to 20% of our live baseload since early Summer so far this year (12.66% average over the last rolling 30 days as of today). Fed with coal, the dirtiest form of generation by far.

Gas is then the next available fluctuating source to meet major shifts in wind availability, with the caveat being the more frequently you ramp it up or down the less efficient overall it becomes as most of our major gas plant is combined cycle, intended for stable baseload output as opposed to responsive demand driven.

Most of the fast acting responsive generation is done using either gas or oil in open cycle turbines which are the least efficient form of generation, along with oil being dirtier than gas.

But the goal shouldnt be to increase night-time usage to match day-time usage, the goal should be to reduce usage full stop.

We should be looking for storage solutions so that night-time generation can be stored for day-time peaks - obviously there are big issues scaling any storage technology to the scale required, but adding more load at night time instead of looking for more energy (and space) efficient transport modes in the first place... it just doesnt make sense (unless you are a SIMI member)

I imagine so.

It would also stop the grid from going completely dark if gas flows were suddenly interrupted from the UK. Don't know how our grid would fare in a black start scenario!

It's not a goal per se, we're inevitably going to substantially increase load on the grid even if we just electrified heating and public transport and not a single personal car. Our daytime demand is also going to rise significantly in the coming years.

The time when public service vehicles are most suited to be charged tends to be at night when buses don't operate so that's where the bulk of this new demand is ultimately going to end up on the grid.

The NTA are to take delivery of 120 electric buses shortly with a view to increasing to 800 over 5-years.

Each bus will have 454kWh of battery capacity which should give ~300KM of range, about a day's worth of driving for most routes so assume the vast majority of their vehicles will need a near full charge daily.

That's going to be well in excess of 350,000kWh of power drawn every single day from the grid, just for these 800 busses, the majority in the overnight hours.

Extend that same migration of these 800 electric busses out to the rest of the public transport network throughout the country and you're talking thousands of busses, some of which will be required to cover well in excess of 300KM a day and thus require multiple high power charging sessions thorughout the day and so that will feed into higher daytime demand.

Heatpumps also tend to be at their least efficient overnight (outside air is at its coldest), no assistance in heating rooms via radiated heat from the sun, whilst also having the biggest demand placed on them (have the house warm with plenty of hot water for showers for the morning) so that's also going to place the grid under most pressure during overnight hours too.

A heatpump could use anything from 3,000-6,000kWh of energy a year per property, most of which will be consumed within the 6-month period October-March. Multiply that out to 600k properties and that's anything from 10GWh (10,000,000 kWh) to 20GWh of average additional consumption to be placed onto the grid per day, or a minimum of between ~0.4GW and ~0.8GW of sustained demand to be met throughout each of the 24-hours, every single day, and weighted mostly in the overnight hours.

And again, that's before you've factored in a single one of the 1mn EV's, or put in additional public transport options to completely displace a private car commute from happening (which means more busses, more routes, and thus more demand for electricity) or taken into account the tens of thousands of new houses that will materialise in the coming years to solve the housing crisis.

Reports today in the Independent and on RTÉ that seems to suggest Tarbert is pretty much done for, 3 of the 4 oil units would appear to now be completely inoperable.

While it was due to be retired next year anyway, that's 600MW of generation that is now not going to be available for this winter.

That's on top of at least 630MW of generation expected online in the near future that is now not going to happen as the various backers all pulled out.

Really only leaves Moneypoint's coal (900MW) and the various oil fired peaking plants (few hundred MW) as the immediate non-gas generation alternatives to hand apart from wind heading into winter, since the UK are themselves expecting shortfalls in power (so the interconnectors can effectively be ruled out as a reliable source of import if we face a crunch).

Maybe they pulled out because they took one look at the gas supply problem and the politician's collective insanity in not fixing it by fast tracking LNG, and said nope.

I wouldn't put it past ER and the rest of the loonies in charge to be seeking contracts with penaltiies for non supply irrespective of the gas supply situation.

This country has an absolute genius for making rods for it's own back. And as I have said several times, the planning system needs to be scrapped completely and one that actually works, copied from another country.

Solar panels: you lost that one fast.

That was exactly my point, the change was necessary because the planning system is too restrictive.

And what happens with an interconnector to Spain ?

Are we accessing cheap solar ? During daytime summer hours ? And making it expensive by buying the surplus and sending it down a 3.5 billion dollar wire . With losses ..

Bord Na Mona’s Bellacorrick wind farm in Mayo is still operational after having opened in 1992. It was one of the first wind farms in Ireland as far as I know. It’s now surrounded by the very very much larger Oweninny wind farm. Phase 1 and 2 is operational and a joint venture with the ESB. Phase 3 is in planning and will be a BNM only venture.