It’s been an amazing journey over the past 13 years.  While the pendulum of my focus must now swing to family and my personal life, I will forever be very proud of what has been achieved in ElectroRoute.

Saying goodbye is bittersweet, but it does afford an opportunity to acknowledge successes to date and wish everyone the best for the exciting chapters ahead.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve found myself reflecting a lot on the extraordinary challenges and achievements along the path of building ElectroRoute, from literally a set of ideas discussed for hours over kitchen and barroom tables in 2010 to what we have today.

The current range of activity of our pan-European trading company is wonderful.  A full end-to-end trading platform capable of scheduling electricity in a matter of minutes to trading natural gas many years ahead.  We’re shipping Biomethane through pipelines right across Europe one hand and underwriting the risks facing renewable assets for the next decade so that they can be financed on the other.  Since inception ElectroRoute as a company has been intent on knitting together the complicated threads of a decarbonised energy system.

I’m enormously grateful to Alex Bryson, Eamonn O’Donoghue, Alan Mullane, and Bernie Fitzpatrick – the steely co-founders who never wavered along the journey. Their fundamental belief in the mission of building a decarbonised energy system and the commercial opportunity that lay therein bound and fuelled the management team over the years.

While I’m stepping back myself at this juncture, ElectroRoute’s next phase is looking even brighter. Under the leadership of our new Co-CEOs Caoimhe Giblin and Donal Flynn, the company will benefit from vast experience and an expansive professional tool kit.  Two brains will certainly be better than one as the company drives confidently ahead.  I have always felt very privileged and humbled to count Caoimhe, Donal, and our HR director Catherine Kelly (all my professional seniors previously in Airtricity) as part of my team in ElectroRoute.

I have to suppress the temptation to elaborate endlessly in praise of the fantastic staff I have had the pleasure to work with, the friendly and open company culture we created and the innovative approach to technology at ElectroRoute. There simply aren’t enough words or time to do justice to the incredible people who have walked through our doors.  It’s been a great privilege working with each and every one of you across all locations, whether in Dublin, London, Tokyo, or of course, Donegal.

Great credit goes to our early-stage investors, central to whom were Paul Dowling and Bran Keogh. They helped us get on, and stay on, the right path. Over the past 7 years joining the Mitsubishi Group of companies has been instrumental in propelling ElectroRoute to its current significant European and indeed global footprint.  The scale, strength, and quality of our business today is testament to the invaluable collaboration and strength within the Mitsubishi family. That we now have a full suite physical and financial power trading platform operational and staffed in Tokyo is evidence of the potential for our collaborations in the years ahead.

The future is bright.  While I’ll be doing different things in the future, I am very excited to watch ElectroRoute continue to evolve and thrive under its new leadership. To everyone who has been part of this remarkable journey, thank you for making the last 13 years truly unforgettable.

Ronan

The post A Word of Thanks appeared first on ElectroRoute.

On 6^th December 2023, Ireland generated 4,629 MW of wind energy instantaneously, surpassing the previous record set in February 2022. This record, while another achievement for renewable electricity integration into the Irish electricity grid, was noteworthy for the ease that the Irish system was able to accommodate such high levels of wind generation, and this blog post explores some of the factors that contributed to that.

The high winds were caused by three low-pressure systems located directly off the west coast. Our generation forecasts at Day Ahead indicated that there would be over 4 GW of available wind for most parts of the day, with 5.3 GW possibly available around 14:00. Irish electricity demand was also forecast to be high over the day due to cold temperatures, peaking at 6.7 GW.

In GB temperatures were even cooler and there was lower wind generation, leading to high residual demand there. It was therefore likely that Ireland would be exporting for the whole day, and so it proved, as shown below.  These factors combined meant that the chances of large amounts of dispatch down of wind in Ireland were slim, and that the grid would remain stable even with a lot of renewable electricity generation.

The previous record wind generation of 4,610 MW was exceeded several times throughout the day, with Ireland’s wind generation peaking at 4,629MW at 16:00. Actual and predicted wind generation are displayed in the graph below (from EirGrid). For several hours during the day, the TSO accommodated more than 4.5 GW of wind power generation on the grid.

The below graph shows the wind output, the dispatch down and the “available wind” (the sum of output and dispatch down). Also shown below is a graph of the SNSP level over the day, taken from EirGrid’s dashboard. It is interesting to note that for such high levels of wind generation, there was very little dispatch down and SNSP levels remained relatively low, at just 60 – 65% during the period when generation was above 4.5 GW. The work EirGrid has done in allowing the SNSP limit to increase to 75% has meant that even during record wind generation, we had room to accommodate even more renewable generation on the system.

The SNSP level was helped as we were exporting power to GB. In a situation where we had in fact been importing power, a rough calculation would indicate that we could only have accommodated ~3.8 GW of wind generation on the system on the 6^th December, highlighting the importance of increasing interconnection to Europe and GB if Ireland wants to meet its renewable energy targets.

This noteworthy accomplishment fits in well with Ireland’s renewable energy goals, which requires the country to produce 80% of its annual electricity demand from renewable sources by 2030, and with increased renewable generation capacity, further interconnection with GB & Europe and a continually rising SNSP limit, it is likely that Ireland will regularly break its wind generation record over the coming months and years.

As always, please get in touch with the ElectroRoute team of renewable energy experts for all your energy trading needs – info@electroroute.com

The post New record for Irish Wind Generation! appeared first on ElectroRoute.

The energy policy trilemma

Energy policy textbooks have always outlined the “energy policy trilemma”. This is the fine balance in policy and planning between three key pillars:

• the cost of energy,
• security of energy supply,
• the environmental impact of energy production.

Until recently this obscure framework has been the dusty preserve of policy makers and research students. But today the real meaning of these pillars has crashed onto to the global news agenda in high definition.

• There are now genuine concerns about affordability of energy for the most vulnerable in our society. Increasing energy demand as industries recovered from Covid-19 paired with diminished gas storage levels in Europe, and poor reliability from some fossil fuel generators saw increasing power prices in Ireland in the second half of 2021. In 2022, this situation has been exacerbated by the ongoing events in Ukraine with gas and power prices hitting record levels over the last few months. There is no let-up in sight.
• As Europe ramps up financial sanctions against Russia the physical security of our gas (and therefore electricity) supply is in serious question. With 40% of the EU’s gas coming from Russia, the necessity of reducing our reliance on Russian gas has raised concerns about where we are going to source our energy from.
• Finally, we are constantly reminded of the grim realities of accelerating climate change. In the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s most recent report we heard of the “rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future”, with the opportunity to act drying up at the end of this decade.

Whereas previously we may have had time to be reflective about these issues and the compromises which must be made, the urgency is now clear – tough and swift policy choices are needed.

Doubling Down on Renewables

So, if we are to keep the lights on and ensure that energy is affordable to the average consumer what can we do? The answer is crystal clear, as the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), Micheál Martin, recently told the Dáil (Irish parliament), we must double down on renewables.

Cost of energy

With the rapid roll out of renewable technology around the world, the costs of developing constructing these plants have fallen dramatically with the long term levelized cost of energy produced from a windfarm or solar farm averaging around €50-70/MWh (megawatt hours). This compares favourably with the current cost of producing power from a gas plant of €140-240/MWh.

We already see it, on a windy day in Ireland, the abundance of wind pushes power prices down by a half. The Irish consumer’s pocket directly benefits from an increased level of renewable deployment.

Security of energy supply

Today, Ireland, like much of Europe, is dependent on importing fossil fuels to maintain its energy system. As an island nation on the edge of the Atlantic, we have a rich wind resource, and this indigenous natural resource will allow Ireland to develop its own secure energy supply, unaffected by geopolitical changes.

While previously a lack of understanding about where energy comes from, and a good degree of NIMBY-ism were present in the public debate on the topic, it is increasingly clear to all from the Ukrainian crisis that your “backyard” is by far the best and safest place to source your energy.

Renewables solve a large part of the security of supply objective but not all of it. Grid stability, storage solutions, and interconnection must also play an important part at a technical level to ensure that our supply is reliable day to day. While they will take a little time to mature and deliver, they don’t present an impediment to the rapid and continuous deployment of renewables in the near term.

Environmental impact

Renewables, by their nature, are clean. In 2020, 42% of Ireland’s electricity demand was met by renewable sources and the Irish Climate Action Plan is targeting 80% by 2030 – this is achievable with the right policy framework. But no matter how rapid the deployment of renewables we are still in a process of transition where the rest of the reducing residual demand has to be met by fossil fuels in the near term until the grid and storage solutions develop.

The infeasibility of complete reliance on a networked gas system into which Russia is the biggest supplier is now clear to all. This leaves Ireland with the choice between continued use of Coal or diversifying our gas supply options through Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) facilities. With Coal stations emitting around 3 times as much carbon as gas plants, it would seem, LNG, despite lingering concerns over upstream methane releases, presents Ireland with the least-worst option to meet this residual demand over the transition to 100% renewables. Ireland, unlike many other European countries, has yet to answer this open policy question. The decision to allow planning for our first LNG terminal has been put on the back burner. Initial plans to publish a decision in March 2022 have been delayed.

Renewables Focussed Policy Change Required

While we are aiming for Net Zero in Ireland by 2050, we cannot do the energy transition in the dark. We know that not everyone likes the visual impact of windfarms, but everyone still seems to like having electricity. Now is the time to be pragmatic and put structures in place to allow the increased development of the renewable industry, the grid needed to support it and the fossil fuel infrastructure needed to make the transition as clean and secure as possible.

For example, estimates place Ireland’s offshore wind resources somewhere close to 70GW. The Irish government has set a target of 7GW of offshore wind by 2030. However, most of these projects are stuck at early points of the planning phase with policy remaining stagnant, leaving the sector incapable of keeping up with demand. Technocratic delays and a multitude of avenues for continuous objections and judicial review have blighted development of renewable infrastructure and the grid for too long. While this has spawned a sub-industry in the legal and consulting industries, this is not delivering the rapid green transition our society needs.

Emergency Powers

With Covid-19, Ireland has shown that it can act quickly and effectively, with the entire community coming together to support the extraordinary measures taken during the emergency situation.  We are in a similar emergency situation with energy – the recent actions taken by Russia may be the wake-up call needed to spur forward-thinking countries into action. We may currently be laggards within Europe, but if the right policy decisions are made swiftly, our abundance of renewable resources can allow us to become leaders in the sector.

As this transition happens, we at ElectroRoute plan to remain at the forefront of Irish innovation and future ready. Ready for a renewables-led, net zero, secure future.

This article, authored by Ronan Doherty, CEO of ElectroRoute, appeared in Business & Finance magazine Q2 2022.

The post Tough and Swift Energy Policy Choices Needed in a Volatile World appeared first on ElectroRoute.