The Smart Grid
Test Bed Opportunity
“On Saturday the 15th of January this year, Ireland
established a new wind energy record. At 4.00pm
in the afternoon, there was 1,254 megawatts of
wind-generated electricity exported to the national
transmission system.”
This was enough power to supply the needs of more
than 800,000 homes and represented nearly one
third of all electricity being used in the Republic
of Ireland at the time - something that would have
been inconceivable 10 years ago.
In many ways we should not be surprised by this
achievement as Ireland has ambitious goals in the
area of renewable energy.
Ireland has the best wind resource in Europe and
wind farms in Ireland have a higher average output
than those on the continent.
This is reflected in the Irish Government’s mandate
that 40% of all electricity consumption in the
country must be met from renewable sources by
2020, the highest such target in Europe.
As January 15th demonstrated, there is great
progress being made. However, progress presents its
own challenges. One of the most important being
– how do you manage an intermittent power source
such as wind on the electricity transmission grid?
Irish consumers have come to expect electricity to
be available literally at the flick of a switch. But how
can that be achieved when the wind does not blow?
The operation and control of electricity generation
and network assets is a critical element of the
country’s electricity system. EirGrid is developing