Energy

Ireland is ‘firefighting’ energy crisis of own making, Statkraft boss says

Statkraft Ireland’s managing director Kevin O’Donovan says the national grid operator must move quickly to prevent high energy prices becoming ‘baked into’ the system

Kevin O’Donovan, managing director of Statkraft Ireland: ‘There’s currently far too much curtailment of renewable energy in Ireland because the grid capacity isn’t there to move it around the country.’ Picture: John Allen

Ireland’s energy crisis will get worse over the coming years unless the state delivers a major upgrade to the national power grid, a senior executive in Europe’s largest renewable energy company has warned.

Kevin O’Donovan, managing director of Statkraft Ireland, said the country was currently “firefighting” an energy crisis of its own making after failing to deliver what he described as any meaningful grid infrastructure developments over the past decade.

He warned that high energy ...