Consultation - Ireland

Energy Storage in Ireland

Invitation to participate in a National Stakeholder

Consultation Process and Workshop


On behalf of the EU project stoRE, University College Cork and Malachy Walsh and Partners would like to thank those who participated in the National Stakeholder Consultation Process and the National Workshop on the 2nd of October at the Galway Bay Hotel, organised in the context of the stoRE project.

 

The stoRE project

The objective of the stoRE project is to facilitate the development of bulk energy storage technologies, such as pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage, in order to allow greater penetration of variable renewable energy. The main issues influencing further development of energy storage are regulatory and market framework conditions and the environmental factors. There are 9 partners involved in the stoRE project with 6 target countries: Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland and Spain. The stoRE project has to date published several reports in this regard, which can be found here, with the results for the target countries collected here.

One of these reports “Future Energy Storage Needs in Ireland – Power system overview and RES integration” (2013) clearly shows the benefits from development of additional energy storage capacity by 2020, including increased overall RES-E share and a reduction in curtailment of wind energy. The report has also shown that, due to the fact that wind power output in Ireland and Great Britain is highly correlated, adding further interconnection capacity, beyond that currently planned for 2020, will only allow a small increase in wind power export.

A further report “Recommendations for furthering the sustainable Development of Bulk Energy Storage Facilities” (2012) shows that the current development of Bulk Energy Storage Facilities is an inefficient developer led process that leads to increased risk, cost and time. This report recommends a top-down approach by the Government, to determine a need for Energy Storage, to develop plans and programmes, to determine suitable locations and to develop clear guidelines.

 

National Stakeholder Consultation Process

The stoRE project undertook a National Stakeholder Consultation Process in each of the partner countries. Within the Irish context, the stoRE project has identified 6 main challenges. The purpose of the stakeholder consultation process was to bring to light the stakeholders experience and the changes that they wish to see in the current development framework, or why the current approach is necessary even if it might discourage storage development. The findings from the consultation process were presented at the National Workshop, where the main barriers and strategies to overcome them were presented and discussed. The number of respondents to the questionnaire was 30 on the 7th of October 2013. For further details please see the minutes and the presentation from the National Workshop.

The issues discussed during the National Workshop will help in drafting an Action List for Ireland with recommendations for changes in the regulatory and market framework. If you wish to provide us with feedback on the Draft (1) Action List, please do not hesitate to contact us at A.Waenn |at| ucc.ie

 

National Workshop

The National Workshop, which concluded the National Stakeholder Consultation, was held on the 2nd of October at the Galway Bay Hotel in the afternoon, the day before the IWEA Autumn Conference 2013. There were 27 attendees present mainly from energy organisations, utilities, suppliers and academia excluding the 4 representatives of stoRE from UCC and Malachy Walsh and Partners. For further details please see the minutes and the presentation from the National Workshop.

Should you wish to contribute to the stoRE project as an Irish stakeholder or should you have further queries in regard to the further works of stoRE from an Irish perspective. Please do not hesitate to contact us at A.Waenn |at| ucc.ie