Amazon seeks planning exemption on generator use amid grid strain

Tech giant Amazon wrote to Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien voicing concerns that planning restrictions governing the use of backup generators at its facilities could hinder requests from operator EirGrid to help ease pressure on the national grid.

The letter, which was sent to the Minister in May and has been seen by The Irish Times, asked O’Brien to consider introducing regulations that would make the operation of backup generators in response to a request from the grid operator an exempted development. The tech company asked for such measures to be considered before this winter.

Some of the biggest energy users in the State are part of a voluntary programme that sees them reduce power consumption and turn on backup generators for brief periods at EirGrid’s request. However, planning permissions on individual sites can limit the hours that the generators can operate each year.

In the letter, Amazon said there was a “heightened risk in the event of an unforeseen system emergency” that large energy users such as Amazon Web Services could be asked to operate the generators in excess of those specified hourly limits.

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“To address this situation, we request that your department consider the introduction of regulations under the Planning and Development Act to stipulate that the operation of backup generation facilities, when activated in response to an explicit request from EirGrid, be considered an exempted development,” Amazon said.

“The ability of large energy users to assist EirGrid, however, is constrained where planning permissions for individual sites restrict the hours that such backup generation can operate annually,” the letter said. “Those designated hours-of-operation are now being eroded by EirGrid’s increased use of the voluntary demand side participation programme.”

However, an update from EirGrid last month indicated that although the balance between supply and demand remains tight, there is a lower risk of power system alerts in coming months compared with what was expected last year.

The security of supply programme will deliver an expected 270 megawatts (MW) of temporary emergency generation this year, EirGrid said, with a further temporary emergency generation of 380MW. Other capacity including batteries will be delivered in 2024.