'Acute' risk to security of power supply in Ireland, CRU warns

The risk to security of supply of power in Ireland is “acute” amid fears of significant outages and damage to government policy on climate change.

The latest risk register for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) last month scored challenges to supply at five out of five for impact, and four out of five for the likelihood of them happening.

This created a risk calculated at twenty out of twenty-five that electricity supply needs would not be met between now and 2025.

There is potential for “loss of load expectation, expectation higher than target and/or significant events occurring during the period such as significant outages”, the CRU warned.

The June 2022 risk register added that it has  "the potential to hamper public sentiment for Climate Action Plan and the transition to low carbon future.”

The CRU also warned that inadequate resources were affecting their ability to deliver on their objectives, compounded by requirements to accelerate work on climate targets and deal with supply issues.

Staffing issues are also being encountered within the CRU. 

It said there was a risk of delays to key work as well as the possibility of “burnout of existing staff and potential retention issues”.

They said recruiting new staff required significant effort and cost but that vacancies in the regulator were down to six, with two jobs currently being advertised.

The CRU also said some resources had been reassigned to priority areas including security of supply.