No threat to 2007 power supply - Eirgrid

The chief executive of Eirgrid has said there is no immediate threat to power supplies this year, but has called on generators to improve their availability over the next few years.

Dermot Byrne was speaking at the launch of the annual report of the State agency, which manages the national electricity grid.

The report showed that energy demand rose 4.4% last year. Over 9% of electricity was generated from renewable sources and Eirgrid said it wanted to become a world leader in connecting renewable energy.

It also said it was on target to increase the use of renewable energy in the National Grid to 15% by 2010.

Eirgrid reported an underlying profit of €3m for the year, and said it had revenues of €139m.
On July 1 Eirgrid took on the roles of Independent Transmission System Operator and wholesale market operator.

Mr Byrne said Eirgrid was working on setting up the Single Electricity Market, building new interconnectors and working to achieve increased renewable energy and efficiency.

The company also said it was on target to meet the November 1 deadline this year for the introduction of the all-island single electricity market. This will bring together the two wholesale electricity markets on the island of ireland.

In December demand exceeded 5,000MW for the first time with security of supply maintained.
Eirgrid said wind generated electricity reached 750MW last year, in addition to around 250MW of hydro-electric power and generation from landfill gas.

Eirgrid currently manages the network, by bringing power from generating plants to the distribution network, but it does not own it.

The Government is planning to transfer the state's electricity transmission network, which is currently owned by the ESB, to Eirgrid, within 15 months.