Ireland has wasted €2.1 billion worth of renewable energy over the past eight years, when this clean power could easily have been used to provide hot water to households facing energy poverty.
That is the verdict of EnergyCloud Ireland, a not-for-profit social enterprise, which has written to Minister for Energy Darragh O’Brien, TDs and senators detailing how an easily-installed smart device could harness surplus wind energy.
The Economic and Social Research Institute estimates 550,000 households are in energy poverty.
The problem of excess arises because wind energy providers often have to “dispatch down” to ensure the electricity supply system stays at a steady frequency. This occurs when EirGrid, which operates the transmission system, instructs them to produce less power.
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If wind farms receive this instruction they have to turn off all or some of their turbines temporarily, even though everything might be working fine and wind is blowing.
EirGrid’s first priority is to ensure the safe and secure operation of the system. It does not directdispatch down lightly, according to Wind Energy Ireland (WEI). It does it either because there are “constraints”, such as a windy day that generates a lot of electricity, or “curtailment”.
The former arises when there is a lot of electricity, from wind and fossil fuel, but not enough capacity on the power lines to transport it to where it must go. This is similar to a traffic jam on the roads.
Curtailment occurs because of particular challenges taking renewables on to the system.
EnergyCloud was created to find ways to use some of this surplus to tackle energy poverty. It is supported by Ireland’s largest housing agency, Clúid Housing, as well as the ESB, EirGrid, WEI, Climote and SSE Airtricity.
The enterprise decided to evaluate the extent of the problem by analysing figures based on data from EirGrid, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and its own dashboard.
This confirms 7,022 gigawatt hours of zero-carbon renewable wind energy has been dispatched down since 2017. The retail value of this wasted clean energy is €2.103 billion. About 2.34 billion tanks of hot water could have been heated with this energy, potentially benefiting hundreds of thousands of energy poor households.
Its analysis indicates dispatch-down problems are worsening every year with 3.7 per cent of wind energy dispatched down in 2017, rising to 10 per cent in 2024.
In the letter, EnergyCloud said Ireland can be a leader in creating solutions for harnessing and using surplus energy rather than simply switching off turbines and solar panels when demand for energy is low at night. This solution also helps reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels by using renewables that would otherwise be wasted.
Its chair, John Mullins, says the enterprise is heartened to see the programme for government committing to “explore if legislation could be enacted to divert surplus renewable energy, that would otherwise be wasted, to homes in fuel poverty”, thereby ensuring it “benefits all communities”.
If unaddressed, he warned, the problem will get worse: “the more we put on the grid, the more curtailment”. It will also become more expensive as generators will have to be paid in the future when dispatch down occurs, which will ultimately cost all electricity consumers.
The energy poverty solution should be rolled out in tandem with reinforcing and expanding the grid and providing more backup in the form of battery storage, Mr Mullins adds.
EnergyCloud has pilot projects under way with local authorities and housing agencies, demonstrating the technology’s effectiveness. It selects households and agrees a plan to install smart immersion controllers. These devices, which the social enterprise sources externally, are accessed remotely by EnergyCloud to heat a home’s water tank at the appropriate time, with householders not required to do anything.
Mr Mullins says the Oireachtas Social Protection Committee report on energy poverty strongly endorses this approach, in a scenario where the Government no longer wants to provide universal energy credits.
Fingal County Council in 2023 become the first local authority to partner with EnergyCloud to provide free hot water to homes in a scheme launched by Mr O’Brien, then minister for housing.
“A broader pilot” is needed now to scale up to 10,000 customers by 2026, says Mr Mullins, saying this could be done by EnergyCloud or the SEAI.
Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe last month introduced a Bill to harness surplus renewable energy. He said the Bill attempts to adopt a “more strategic approach” to energy management.
“Harnessing this energy effectively can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and help those who live in energy poverty,” he said.
In separate analysis, consultants Cornwall Insight predicted unused and wasted renewable energy will cause Northern Ireland to miss its 2030 power emissions target by more than 20 per cent.
Almost 40 per cent of wind energy generated in Northern Ireland last December “went unused due to restrictions in the power grid”. This is compounded by the absence of the North-South interconnector, which has been 20 years in the planning. It would ensure more efficient power use with wind and solar, and reduce electricity costs.
