Supply is the tightest it has been for “a good while”.
There is no certainty that Ireland will be able to avoid blackouts this winter, a senior research officer from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has said.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland on Friday, Dr Muireann Lynch said that supply is the tightest it has been for “a good while” and if Ireland were to experience interruptions to power, it would” certainly occur at peak times”.
“What we do know is that supply on the system is the tightest it’s been for a good while and while the expectation is always that there will be no blackouts, historically we have operated the system far more reliably than targets suggest,” she said.
“What I would say is a lot of it comes down to the wind and a lot of it comes down to whether or not customers can shift their demand from the peak times. If there are interruptions, they’ll almost certainly occur at peak times.”
However, even if Ireland has optimal wind conditions and a reduce in demand at peak times, Dr Lynch said that no one can say for sure whether blackouts can be avoided.
However, she said, prices will still continue to rise as “unfortunately electricity prices are so closely linked to the price of gas”.
“Whatever about meeting our peak demand, we do know unfortunately that prices almost certainly will stay very high, if not increase over the winter.”
SSE Airtricity has announced it will hike its standard household gas and electricity prices by 35.4% and 39% from 1 October this year.
The move will impact around 250,000 electricity customers and 85,000 gas customers.
The increase will add almost €600 a year to the average customer’s electricity bill and over €500 a year to their gas bill.
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