Where did all the power go?

Dakota Dan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118092095#Comment_118092095

Of course it has nothing to do with the geniuses that shut down the coal and peat power stations.

AndyBoBandy

What hasn’t helped the situation was Whitegate & Huntstown power stations being down for most of the year (Huntstown has just recently returned to service, and Whitegate hopefully in the coming weeks). These 2 stations account for about 20% of our electricity consumption.

the problem is that 20% had to be backfilled from elsewhere, meaning other older machines that normally wouldn’t be run so often were up running for longer periods, thus exposing them to higher risk of potential mechanical failure, as well as meaning there was little to no ‘emergency reserve’ given the emergency reserve was already being run all year to cover for Huntstown & Whitegate.

In tha last few days a number of the ‘reserve’ generation capacity have had mechanical issues themselves resulting in the amber alert this week.

I don’t know what happened in Huntstown but the Gas Turbine in Whitegate had a fairly rare and fairly extreme mechanical failure, which meant it’s down almost 10 months now… and typically the longest that machine should ever be down for would be about 6 weeks every 3-4 years (with smaller/shorter maintenance shutdowns in between).

beggars_bush

Maybe all the extra gadgets, tvs, computers, charging electric cars are putting too much strain on our electricity supply system?

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093914#Comment_118093914

It would take 15 years minimum to setup a plant here even if all the stars aligned, zero power before 2035 so you still have to provide interim power sources.

You'd also need serious spinning reserve and backup. And it would only provide baseload (at twice the market rate, indexed linked for 35 years) so you'd still need peaking plant. And nuclear is the poster boy for Single Point Of Failure, and Delays and Cost Overruns, and dropping off the grid for extended periods of time with zero warning.

It would be quicker and cheaper to store hydrogen from wind power in old salt caverns or disused gas fields. And roll out the interconnecter to France (they are dropping nuclear from 75% to 50% and spending a fortune retrofitting them). Greenlight the Silvermines pumped storage. Insulate the houses.

touts

Wait til the Brits shut down the interconnector in retaliation for the French shutting off electricity to the channel Islands.

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093914#Comment_118093914

See Hinkley Point C omnishambles in the UK. I have no reason to believe we'd do any better than the UK, who have been dealing with large nuclear developments since dot.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118095414#Comment_118095414

Peat was a dirty and inefficient fuel. It was shocking that new or replacement plants were still being commissioned this century. Vote grabbing stuff in the Bertie Ahern and Mary O'Rourke era.

Peat is cleaner than Coal as it is pure decomposed vegatation with no other rocks/minerals mixed in.

An inefficient fuel with a low calorific value which is in bountiful on your doorstep is better than a fuel with a higher calorific value which must be sourced abroad.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118096385#Comment_118096385

It's a shame to waste turf on generating electricity for boring data centres when it could be used to provide lovely cosy turf fires for people

Roger the cabin boy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093970#Comment_118093970

The Irish state running a nuclear power plant? 👀

A better solution would be for the Irish state to join the 1st world and enable the micro-production of electricity.

Not in a "You pay X but we pay X/Y" format being proposed atm.

It should be a full credit system. The end user only pays for the net usage. Like the US system.

Do that, and the thousands who have EVs will out up solar panels and become exporters of electricity.

I can't believe that we can't do this here currently.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097009#Comment_118097009

They are bringing in a feed in tariff soon so you'll get paid 4c for every kw you import but you'll have to pay about 25 or more for each one you import.

Darc19

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118093743#Comment_118093743

Shhhh...

Don't be ruining the scaremongering of tabloid newspapers with insight and truth 😁

Ger Roe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097009#Comment_118097009

I agree,

Instead of hammering the domestic consumer to pay more for using less electricity (most of us are doing our best already and have cut consumption by about as much as we can) enable the householder to generate at least some of their own requirement and reduce the demand at the source.

Is that too simple, because then the energy supply companies would kick up over the reduced demand that they pretend to encourage?. No one is interested in helping domestic consumers to help themselves, they just want us to pay more for the less electricity we use on the existing national generating model.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097075#Comment_118097075

There are a lot of new power companies that entered the market in recent years thanks to d'EU and they are indeed kicking up about people generating their own. You even have the ESB insinuating that electricity from a grid tie inverter is inferior to other sources.

It is all a racket. They want the €1200-€2500 leaving every household every year and going into their pocket but they don't want to go through any extra trouble for it. Obviously they all engage in lobbying and the regulator/politicians stupidly pay attention to their whinging.

Roger the cabin boy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097059#Comment_118097059

Jeysus, the bureaucracy of the Irish state is a monster.

The ESB and its champions need to get out of the 19th century.

Darc19

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118094067#Comment_118094067

Grants are there to try and keep EVs close to diesel and petrol alternatives.

As technology improves and economies of scale come into play, prices will come down substantially and grants will not be warranted.

Considering how simple an ev engine is, prices will probably drop below current diesel and petrol engine prices.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118096174#Comment_118096174

No. Our gadgets are far more efficient than in the past. Only electric cars in that list would cause strain.

it’s obviously the closure of the plants. Bit let’s not get excited on one data point. Later on today we’ll probably be exporting power.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097230#Comment_118097230

Ahem, Game Consoles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097251#Comment_118097251

You have to prove that, anyway I had an Atari something it other in the 80s.

There should be some figures in per capita production vs population and GDP growth. In the UK gdp per capita grew when carbon use per capita fell, since 1990.

I don't need to prove that a modern game console is burning huge amounts of electricity. It is on a label on the product.

YFlyer

When Eirgrid website was good. I noticed that wind energy was either reduced or exported. Can't fossil fuel generators be turned off if plenty of wind?

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118095414#Comment_118095414

Peat and coal are hugely polluting. Shutting them down was absolutely 100% the correct decision...

personally I'm not willing to sacrifice our air quality and wellbeing just to enable the enormous population growth.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097335#Comment_118097335

Well then post those stats. I don’t have one. you might be right

most devices are low to insignificant in terms of power usage. Boiling a kettle for 3 minutes = 10 iPhone charges.

Amps multiplied by Volts equals Watts.

A gaming console isn't any "most devices". It is a plastic enclosure and heat removal system for a Graphical Processing Unit. It is an absolute hog on electricity.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097520#Comment_118097520

It’s still pretty good I think. Yes we export excess wind because shutting down those plants means they would have to be started up again which takes time. When running all you need is to add more energy to keep the turbine(s) at 50hz.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097569#Comment_118097569

I know what watts are. It’s how I know an iPhone uses about 10W a day.

you might be right on consoles though. They are very inefficient (especially for streaming)

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/noah-horowitz/latest-game-consoles-environmental-winners-or-losers

YFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097582#Comment_118097582

They just have to have a certain amount for the turbines. Have wind running full throttle. Turlough Hill if bad ar night.

Timberrrrrrrr

This fùcker took it all.

YFlyer

The South of Spain were taxing householders for using solar. They went back to fossil. Governments don't care.

Wanderer78

we have failed to keep up with our power demands, failed to advance and grow our power networks, we re potentially in serious trouble, as it takes a long time to create and build these networks, hence our need to import power, i.e. we ve become more and more reliant on other countries to provide our power needs, again, we have failed