Sunday 26 December 2021

Off Grid Electricity keeps Lights On

Significant amounts of Diesel generation keeping the lights on at times 


 "With regard to demand side units, even at the start of September we saw a significantly tight period. At that point, wind was giving us very low electricity. Demand side units were asked to become active and they did. They can respond and they can make a material difference there " - Energy Regulator, October 2021

Demand side units are off Grid forms of generation that allow large users of electricity to switch off from the grid and generate their own.

According to eirgrid, most of this form of generation is diesel generators :

Industrial generation refers to generation, usually powered by diesel engines, located on industrial or commercial premises, which acts as on-site supply during peak demand and emergency periods [Eirgrid Report]

The energy regulator, in an Oireachtas Committee debate in October stated that these generators made a material difference in September when wind speeds were low.

What this means is that at times a significant proportion of electricity produced in this country is not counted in the official figures. So when you read that gas has produced 57 % and wind 35 %, these figures refer only to the on grid proportion only. We do not have figures for off Grid which is mainly diesel. 

5 comments:

  1. Many of the mythological 100% renewable energy powered data centres installed in Ireland are in reality massive fossil fuel guzzlers that are powered predominantly with heavily subsidised electricity from the national grid. It’s ironic that the more electricity that industries consume then the less they pay per kW/h. So where is the incentive for Industry to be more energy efficient and significantly reduce their electricity demand if they then have to pay more per kW/h of electricity consumed?
    Most Data Centres have proposed to install banks and banks of dual fuel/diesel generators with a potential total generating capacity of a medium sized conventional fossil fuel power plant for each and every corporate data centre installed. And most are installed in built up areas. None of this was properly socioeconomically and environmentally assessed at the policy making and at the planning stage.....even when serious issues were pointed out. How much are Industries now getting paid to go off grid and switch to their on site dual fuel/diesel electricity generation? And what impact does this have, if any, on the cost of regular business and domestic electricity bills and taxes in general? People by and large have been greatly deceived by the Climate Change propaganda and the renewable energy junk industry that has created far more problems than it has solved and at such great expense. This is what happens when there is zero to light touch regulation and when concerns raised long ago about the flawed energy policy were given at best a scant regard.

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  2. The latest news is that the EU are planning to designate nuclear and gas energy sources as green.

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  3. Intel have announced that they are not going to invest 80 billion Euros in Galway, Ireland but will look to Germany and Poland. There are many reasons but they already have a successful plant in Ireland. One reason cited is electricity insecurity. They need a secure supply of three phase electricity and the experience of many existing factories in Ireland is that they are being requested by government to get into the business of supplying the grid with electricity from their own gas and diesel power packs. They are told to stop production and divert their power to the national grid. Intel are in the business of making electronic components not replacing the ESB. Factories that comply have still to pay their staff for being idle. Another factor is cost of power in Ireland which is very high but German power is very high too. They might chose Poland is they can trust its government to keep mining coal.

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  4. This article (if the link works) shows that while the risk of a European wide power failure is low, it is possible and has not been properly considered by authorities. https://www.greco.services/en/news/blackout-europe.html It may be linked using a search with the words "blackout in Europe greco services". In cold weather a week without electricity would be severe.

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  5. Check out Bloomberg Natural gas soars 700%. Becoming driving force in new cold war. Everything we warned of has come to pass. It seems to be free to view.
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-05/the-global-energy-crisis-just-got-even-worse-here-s-why?utm_medium=cpc_social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=BLOM_ENG_EDITORL_Y0469_FB_SO_WENG_FOCUSPROSX_INTST_00XXXXCPM_2PFB_XXXX_GENERALINTSTX_XXXXX_Y0469_XXXXX_ALLFOA_CWAR_C3_EN_PG_NFLINKS&dclid=CjgKEAjw_b6WBhD1vt_M952u-hwSJABwmQ0M-lVcCZB_5RBQ_-78Wf3Y9HJm5rygCaYWDlxBpEqoCPD_BwE

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