Bottlenecks on the national grid are cutting supplies of cheaper electricity to homes and businesses, an industry group claims.
Wind energy generated 39 per cent of the electricity used in the Republic last month, making it the second-best December on record for renewable power.
However, lobby group Wind Energy Ireland calculates that 13 per cent of the electricity generated by its industry is not getting to consumers because of problems with the national grid.
Noel Cunniffe, its chief executive, said on Wednesday that “13 per cent of Ireland’s cheapest electricity was wasted” because the grid could not carry the power produced by wind farms.
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“Making the electricity grid strong enough to accommodate increasing volumes of affordable energy is essential,” he argued.
Failing to do this would increase reliance on more expensive fossil fuels, he warned.
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Mr Cunniffe welcomed recent investment in the electricity grid but stressed that continued political support for further spending by State companies EirGrid and ESB Networks on infrastructure was needed.
EirGrid confirmed that 13.4 per cent of potential wind energy was lost last year to Ireland as a whole. The figure was 11.4 per cent for the Republic alone.
The company explained that it instructs power plants to cut electricity production for several reasons, including local constraints, or where it has to limit the total amount of wind on the system for safety reasons.
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The company pointed out that it was taking several steps to ease the problem, known as “dispatch down”, including buying new technology meant to aid the system in taking on more renewable power.
It has also cut the minimum number of fossil-fuel plants that must supply electricity to the system at any one time from five to four.
The systems need fossil fuel plants to ensure stability, even when renewables are readily available.
EirGrid says that it is planning “the most ambitious capital programme of infrastructure development ever undertaken on the transmission system in Ireland”, which should ease the problem.
Both it and ESB Networks could spend up to €19 billion between now and 2030 on the electricity supply system.
Meanwhile, Wind Energy Ireland said on Wednesday that its industry supplied around one-third of electricity used on the island as a whole last year.
In December, wind farms supplied 39 per cent of electricity consumed here.
Last month, this pushed wholesale prices down to €108.48 per mega watt hour – the unit in which electricity is sold – from €136.99 in December 2024, said Wind Energy Ireland.
