Electricity imports from Britain and the North will bolster supplies in the Republic this winter, national grid operator EirGrid confirmed on Wednesday.
The State company predicts that electricity demand in the Republic could hit a record of 6,044 mega watts this winter, up from the latest high of 6,024, reached on January 8th.
EirGrid cautions that the margin between available supply and demand will remain tight over winter, but says the probability of any power loss will be low in the Republic.
Electricity supplied through lines connecting the State with Britain and Northern Ireland will help ensure that the Republic’s homes and businesses have enough energy during the coldest months, the company believes.
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It expects that the Republic will draw around 20 per cent of its electricity requirement from Britain and the North during the October to March period, when demand is likely to be highest.
In January this year, a second interconnector, running between the east coast and Wales, began supplying power. Dubbed the Green Link, it can transmit up to 500 mega watts of electricity in either direction, equivalent to an average-sized gas-fired power plant.
High electricity costs here make it an attractive market for suppliers based in Britain. Lines also connect the Republic and North, which together form the all-Ireland single market.
Eirgrid’s Winter Outlook for 2025/26 states that there is no risk of a widespread blackout this winter. But it suggests the system could at times enter the “alert state”, where demand means the amount of electricity generation held in reserve is at low levels.
“On average, electricity consumers could be without supply for less than five minutes over the winter period,” says the EirGrid report.
However, it adds that this does not mean customers will be without power at any point, as EirGrid has agreed safeguards with large energy users, mostly data centres and manufacturers that are meant to ease risks for households.
Along with the interconnectors, EirGrid can also call on temporary emergency power plants installed in Dublin, the midlands and Shannon to shore up supplies.
The company confirmed that one emergency generator in Dublin supplied power briefly in June but that was as a result of an emergency caused by a fault in a cable, not any shortage of electricity supplies.
Eirgrid’s “loss of load expectation”, an industry measure used to calculate the risk of a power loss, stands at 1.1 hours for the five-month winter period.
Diarmaid Gillespie, Eirgrid’s director of system operations, said this means “that the system will operate within the level of risk that is set by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment”.
The loss of load figure is less than one third of last winter’s 3.6 hours. It was 21 hours in 2023/24 and 51 hours in winter 2022/23.
