"The CRU has effectively turned up the heat and locked the door of the kitchen.” - Appeal Panel decision
The Appeal Panel was made up of three barristers - Eilis Brennan BL, Joe Jeffers BL and Aoife Carroll BL. They ruled that the Regulator had made a “serious and significant error (by omission)” by not reaching a negotiated settlement to help manage the power station's exit from the market through a Targeted Contracting Mechanism (TCM). In a further blow to the already delayed I-SEM, the Regulator had failed to include a TCM in it's setup.
It's uncertain as to the consequences of this ruling and whether it will actually be implemented at all. However, it does highlight the urgent need for some independent oversight in Ireland.
I wrote previously about the capacity auction here.
There is nothing surer, ISEM will go ahead. Why because it's being implemented by the CRU, public servants that will have egg on their faces if this is not a success.
ReplyDeleteThe whole of ISEM is flawed. How can two modern CCGT plants only half way through their working lives situated in Dublin which is a constrained area not be viable?
These units at Huntstown are vital to not only to satisfy Dublin constraints but to the while grid on the island of Ireland. These units have have had considerable operation over the past 12 months.
Together they can supply 20 of the electricity demands in Ireland.
Interconnection is unreliable the east west interconnector was out if action for more that 3 months last year and so far in 2018 it has had 2 forced outages. Wind in also unreliable you only have to look at the last two months in Ireland, wind has supplied as little as 20MW out of a peak demand of over 4500MW for the whole island of Ireland. During these times over 85% of our electricity demands are met by reliable and relatively clean CCGT generation the remainder made up from coal and HYDRO.
The public are being told lies about wind power in this country.
Now the latest lies being spun is in relation to battery storage. People think it will store wind energy when we have a surplus to be used when the wind is not blowing. This is false and people need to be educated.
These battery storage projects are a lucrative business for those companies who build them.
These battery units are getting paid for voltage control and frequency issues caused by the amount of wind we are forcing on the grid.
Wind generation is being paid regardless if they generate or not.
Conventional reliable plant are being forced to run at low loads which means the are running at low efficiency again to cater for wind.
All this madness is forcing up the cost of electrify in Ireland.
Plants like the 2 units at Huntstown are being forced to shutdown even thought the are required to satisfy constraints.
When are we going to cop on.
When the lights go out because of an unstable grid maybe then we might start to educate ourselves and have a serious debate. Enough is enough.