Publications
Our Zero E-Mission Future
A decarbonised All-Island electricity system is key to achieving climate ambition on the island of Ireland. This study takes a closer look at the future All-Island power system through the lens of decarbonisation by focusing on the year 2030 where over 70% of the annual electricity on the system will be renewable. While this requires a significant level of renewable energy build out, it also demands a resilient power system capable of absorbing and storing fluctuations in weather driven generation and at the same time meeting the demand of new electricity loads from electric cars, residential heating and data centres. Ireland’s location on the edge of Europe presents a limited diversity of interconnection options and so our role within a greater interconnected European power system is also considered.
- Authors
Laura Mehigan, Paul Deane
- Year
- 2020
- Publication Name
- Electricity Association of Ireland
- Category
- Report
- Keywords
- Electricity, Net Zero, Power System
- Full Citation
Electricity Association of Ireland, Our zero e-mission future. EA Ireland. https://www.eaireland.com/our-zero-e-mission-future/
- Link to Publication
- /en/media/research/energypolicyandmodellinggroup/OurZeroe-MissionFuture.pdf
Abstract
Our analysis examines over 250,000 hours of weather data across the island of Ireland and highlights how remarkably flexible the future All-Island power system will have to be to deal with a wide and diverse variation in weather events. At times, the system will produce more renewable generation than can be used, stored, or exported. Yet, it must be sufficiently resilient to deal with periods of low regional wind generation and extremes such as periods where there is very little power being supplied by renewables. Conventional generators and interconnectors meet the bulk of electricity demand during periods of low regional wind availability helped with smart loads, demand side response units and batteries.