Energy

Eirgrid plays down winter power outage risk despite delays in emergency power plants

National grid operator plans to implement mandatory demand curtailment protocols on data centres to reduce demand if system stress emerges

Mark Foley, chief executive of Eirgrid, said he was “encouraged” to see the risk of power outages reducing this winter. Picture: Aidan Crawley

More than half of the emergency power generation that Eirgrid planned to have in place by this winter to avoid potential blackouts on the power grid will not be in place in time, the semi-state grid operator has confirmed.

Despite the delays, Eirgrid has said it believes there is a lower risk of system alerts on the power system this winter compared to last year. The grid operator made the forecast in its winter outlook ...