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From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
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As the electricity system evolves to accommodate greater levels of renewable generation, the need for low carbon technologies to support the energy transition increases. Flexibility, the ability to shift energy consumption or generation in time or location to help balance supply and demand, will be critical. Electricity storage, which entails capturing energy produced at one time for future use, provides an essential form of low carbon flexibility and will be an integral component of an electricity sector with high renewable penetration.
Electricity storage encompasses many different technologies – of various sizes, locations and durations – across the entire electricity system. It has many critical functions, which include:
Storage will be vital in helping to meet our Climate Action Plan objectives of increasing the proportion of renewable electricity to up to 80% by 2030 and ultimately in decarbonising the electricity system.
While it is widely accepted that increased levels of electricity storage will be essential in supporting the energy transition, evidence suggests that its benefits are not yet fully understood and that it faces barriers to deployment.
We are developing a policy framework to deliver our objectives in this area as part of the Climate Action Plan. The aim of this consultation is to gather stakeholder feedback to consolidate our understanding of the role of electricity storage in Ireland, as well as the challenges it must overcome and the opportunities it presents. The responses will help inform the design and delivery of an electricity storage policy framework which will be launched next year.
The closing date for submissions is 5.30pm Friday 27 January 2023
Electricity Storage Policy
Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
We are committed to engaging with stakeholders in a clear, open and transparent manner. Any person or organisation can make a submission in relation to this consultation. All submissions and feedback will be considered before the final version of the Framework is published.
Please note that responses to this consultation are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (FOI), Access to Information on the Environment Regulations 2007-2018 (AIE) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Please also note that we intend to publish the contents of all submissions received to our consultations on our website. We will redact personal data prior to publication. In responding to this consultation, parties should clearly indicate where their responses contain personal information, commercially sensitive information or confidential information which they would not wish to be released under FOI, AIE or otherwise published.
We would like to draw your attention to our Data Privacy Notice which explains how and when we collect personal data, why we do so and how we treat this information. It also explains your rights in relation to the collection of personal information and how you can exercise those rights.
Consultants from Azorom assisted the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications with the analysis of the 68 responses to the consultation. Azorom were tasked with reviewing and summarising these responses with the objective of extracting information which will assist with the development of Ireland''s electricity storage policy framework. Azorom have produced the following report which provides their summary of responses to the consultation.
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The Department of Environment, Climate and Communications published the long-awaited Electricity Storage Policy Framework for Ireland on 4 July.
This is the first national policy for energy storage in Ireland and as called out by Eamon Ryan, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications – “it is vital that Ireland exploits the full potential of electricity storage, and the publication of this policy framework is an important step to achieving this goal.”
The policy makes a strong push for immediately investing in electricity storage to help meet 2030 targets while also starting to develop future 2030-2040 storage needs and achieving a zero-carbon power system.
Here are our main takeaways:
– The policy rightly takes a technology neutral approach to energy storage technologies. The Government supports the potential for a portfolio of electricity storage technologies to be incorporated into the grid system based on system needs and the capacity to meet established minimal grid requirements, technical standard thresholds, and lower emission targets.
– The policy actions the immediate incorporation, through an initial procurement round with a guide volume of 500MW, of long duration storage (4+ hours duration) onto the transmission system in order to address specific 2030 system needs identified by EirGrid. This is to be progressed in 2024/2025 with the potential for subsequent procurement rounds of up to 500 MW each, pending ongoing reviews by EirGrid and the CRU.
– This procurement is separate to the Demand Flexibility Product procurement process, which is expected to incorporate up to 500MW of demand flexibility products onto the distribution system, including energy storage. The Government fully supports this procurement process and further updates from ESB Networks and the CRU are due on the procurement in the coming months.
– The policy kicks off work on electricity storage requirements for 2030-2040 with a ‘quantity’ analysis to be undertaken which will establish Ireland’s optimal long-duration storage needs. Alongside this will be a ‘financial’ analysis to assess any revenue gaps and identify the necessary market mechanisms to support investment. A route to market for the identified optimum (long duration) electricity storage requirements for 2030-2040 is to be in place before the end of 2028.
– Introduces an emerging technology sandbox to support both System Operators to identify and pilot emerging electricity storage technology and / or processes potentially capable of incorporation onto the grid network.
Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications launches consultation
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