Hundreds of farmers stand to lose money from the decision to curb the amount of wind power going into the electricity grid, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) claimed yesterday.
The organisation has sought an urgent meeting with the electricity regulator Mr Tom Reeves and wants him to reverse his decision. Mr Reeves, acting on advice from ESB National Grid, has halted the issue of new connections to the grid by wind operators.
The chairman of the IFA's national industrial committee, Mr Francis Fanning, said a large number of farmers had got planning permission for wind farms on their land but now would not be able to proceed without a grid connection.
"This action by the regulator, at the request of the largest operator in the market, the ESB, is a major blow to farmers and others who are promoting a community-based approach and who are already up against enormous obstacles in the fighting the big boys of the energy business," he said.
He said farmers switched to wind energy to find an alternative income source. "This is particularly critical for farmers who are facing enormous challenges to their competitiveness and farming viability arising out of the Fischler reform of the Common Agricultural Policy."
The largest wind company in the State, Airtricity, expressed anger about the decision and reasoning behind it. Chief executive Mr Eddie O'Connor said the advice provided by ESB National Grid to Mr Reeves was "a load of old cobblers".
"The amount of wind energy currently feeding into the national grid is less than 2 per cent and there is no danger to the security of supply to the grid due to current or planned wind energy," he said.
He said Airtricity's programme for wind farms would continue as planned.
Mo O'Connor said announcement by the regulator, the Commission for Electricity Regulation (CER), totally contradicted an independent study that was commissioned by the CER itself, only a matter of months ago.
An Airtricity statement said: "The report written by renowned industry expert Garrad Hassan, the ESB and UCC, specifically indicated that there is no technical limit to the amount of wind energy that can be supplied to the national grid. It outlined that 2,000 megwatts can be connected without any difficulty and 3,000 megawatts could be connected with some changes to the operating regime of the network..
The Labour Party spokesman on Natural Resources, Mr Tommy Broughan TD, called on the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Ahern, to make an immediate statement on the implications for national energy policy.
"This is an extraordinary development given that there have been repeated warnings from the ESB and the regulator himself that we were facing the possibility of electricity cuts because of a shortage of capacity.
