Clarity is needed on Moneypoint amid concerns on the security of the country’s energy supply.
A risk of blackouts this winter in Ireland have been speculated in recent weeks. Questions around the security of the country’s electricity supply have been brought into sharp focus in recent weeks.
Eirgrid last week predicted that Ireland could face electricity shortfalls over the next five years due to increased demand and lower supply due to the closure of a number of fossil fuel-fired power stations.
Speaking in the Dáil last week, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar (FG) commented that the country’s supply this winter was likely to be safe but flagged that this was dependent on the reopening of two gas-fired stations that are temporarily closed, the Bord Gáis-owned Whitegate in Cork and Energia-owned Huntstown in Dublin. These two stations have been shut down for maintenance most of 2021 due to what the national grid operator described as “unexpected and significant failure of equipment. Both stations are expected to be operational in October and November, Varadkar detailed.
During a debate on Climate Action in the Dáil, Clare TD, Michael McNamara (IND) remarked, “This week must have been a bewildering week for the workers in Moneypoint power station”. He sought clarity from the Minister for the Environment, Eamon Ryan (GP) on the future of the West Clare power plant amid growing concerns of blackouts this winter.
“We were told it (Moneypoint) was to close. Now we are being told we face power shortages across the country and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, hinted that Moneypoint might not close as anticipated. We must bring to bear clarity on this point. If we have power shortages, we will be then importing power,” Deputy McNamara stated.
He added, “There is no guarantee that any power imported will be any greener than the power generated at Moneypoint”.
McNamara told the Dáil he was supportive of the “necessity to reduce carbon emissions. It is the political imperative of our time. I look forward to the day when Moneypoint is an innovative and green hub of energy production and hydrogen fuel manufacture, and we are harnessing the power of the Atlantic Ocean. In the meantime, though, we need to power the State. We must reduce our consumption of energy, but we must also meet that energy need”.
Blackouts cannot occur, he stressed. “We cannot end up in a situation where we have blackouts and we also cannot end up staving off that possibility with imported energy that is no cleaner than the energy we generate ourselves”.
