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EirGrid to start consultation process on east Meath to north Dublin upgrade scheme

Reinforcement of this part of the grid is needed to ensure the security of the network

Michael Mahon of EirGrid: 'Every time you look at the Northern Cross area in Dublin there is new housing either planned or under construction.' Photograph: Naoise Culhane
Michael Mahon of EirGrid: 'Every time you look at the Northern Cross area in Dublin there is new housing either planned or under construction.' Photograph: Naoise Culhane
Thu Sept 01 2022 - 05:00

A 12-week public consultation programme will commence next week for EirGrid’s east Meath to north Dublin upgrade project. This involves a new 400 kV underground circuit to link two nodes on the electricity grid, the Woodland substation near Batterstown in Meath and Belcamp substation in Clonshaugh in Dublin.

Reinforcement of this part of the grid is needed to ensure the security of the network feeding the east of Meath and the north of Dublin between Woodland, Clonee, Corduff, Finglas and Belcamp substations, explains EirGrid chief infrastructure officer Michael Mahon.

The project will help meet the growing demand for electricity in the east of the country due to increased economic activity in recent years while also facilitating increasing amounts of renewable electricity that is generated by windfarms in the west and south of the country and transported for use in the east.

Total national electricity demand over the next 10 years is forecast to grow between 19 per cent and 50 per cent, Mahon adds.

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“Every time you look at the Northern Cross area in Dublin there is new housing either planned or under construction,” he points out. “There is a lot of housing planned for the Swords area as well. That all brings an increase in demand for power. There is also the electrification of heat and transport, new and expanding industry, and the new Metro North and Dart North systems. We have to supply power to them all and we don’t have a sufficiently strong network to support that demand at the moment. We need the new cable for that.”

There is also the requirement to support more renewables on the system. The Climate Action Plan has a target to increase the proportion of renewable electricity on the grid to up to 80 per cent by 2030. The plan also states that additional electricity generation and transmission infrastructure will be a critical enabler to achieving the renewable energy and emissions targets.

“At present, renewable power generated in the southwest of the country is mainly transported cross-country on two 400 kV power lines from Moneypoint substation to the Dunstown and Woodland substations in the east of the country,” Mahon notes. “We need to connect the renewable power that terminates in Meath and Kildare at present and bring it into Dublin.”

He also points out that it is quite likely that power from offshore wind farms in the Irish sea is also likely to connect to Belcamp, further adding to the need for the new cable. In addition, there is an emerging need for a new sub-station in the Swords area to support new housing developments and that will also be close to the cable route.

Four route options for the new circuit have been identified and these are now being put out to public consultation. “When the project was conceived originally, we looked at different technologies and ways to get the cable into Dublin,” Mahon explains. “We knew we had to get from Woodland to Dublin and we looked at the Fingal and Belcamp substations as endpoints. Finglas is already near capacity while Belcamp is quite new and is experiencing growing demand, so it was the natural choice.”

Overhead and underground cabling solutions were also explored. “We ruled out overhead earlier this year. It would have been very difficult to find a route for it. One option would have been to cross the Malahide Estuary wand that would have been unacceptable with overhead cables.”

The four routes range in length from 37 km to 43 km and they all cross the M3, M2 and M1 motorways. “It will also be crossing the river Tolka,” he adds. “We are looking at horizontal directional drilling technology which can drill under motorways and install ducts for the cable without disrupting traffic. We might use that for crossing the river.”

The eventual route will be decided on technical, economic, environmental, and deliverability grounds as well as on the basis of the feedback received from the public.

“We have already established a community forum chaired by highly experienced independent facilitator Dr Harriet Emerson,” says Mahon. “This gives us a direct connection to communities and that is key for us. During the consultation process, people can sign up to webinars, arrange to speak to members of the project team, or send submissions to us. We will use that feedback to help finalise the route. We hope to submit a planning application in 2023 and to have permission granted in 2024 in time for construction work to start in 2025 or 2026.”