Update: Electricity, 24th June 2015

*  To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will express as a percentage of daily electricity requirements, the amount of electricity now being generated from oil, gas, wind, biomass or other alternatives, including those likely to become available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. – Bernard J. Durkan.

(1303  Received on 11th June, 2015.)

REPLY

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (Deputy Alex White)
The overarching objective of the Government’s energy policy is to ensure secure and sustainable supplies of competitively priced energy to all consumers. A well balanced fuel mix that provides reliable energy, minimises costs and protects against supply disruptions and price volatility, is essential to Irish consumers. Provisional figures provided by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for 2014 indicate that 69.6% of electricity was generated from fossil fuels which are likely to remain a key component of the electricity generation fuel mix in the medium term. A further 22.6% was generated from renewables and the remainder was imported using the electricity interconnector.

A breakdown of the generation fuel mix on a daily basis, under the headings of coal, gas, renewables, imports and other means of generation is publicly available from the Eirgrid website at the following link: http://smartgriddashboard.eirgrid.com/#all/generation