Provisional data from the agency, which is in charge of the electricity grid in Ireland, found that around 41pc of electricity came from renewable sources in November, an increase of 7pc compared with last year.
Most of this came from wind, which accounted for 35pc of all electricity used last month. This made the total generation of wind reach at 1,067 gigawatt hours (GwH). The total electricity demand last year was 33,791GwH.
The overall electricity system demand stood at 3,088 GwH for November, up from 2,969 GwH in October.
Gas generation made up 42pc of all electricity used last month.
Some 17pc of this was imported by interconnection via underground pipelines from outside Ireland.
Eirgrid noted that there was a new all-time peak for electricity usage on a Sunday recorded last month.
We continued to see an increase in demand on the system last month
Demand reached 5,144 megawatts (MW) on Sunday, November 30.
The previous record for peak demand on a Sunday was recorded last January.
“As we would expect in November, with the clocks having changed, evenings getting shorter and the weather colder, we continued to see an increase in demand on the system last month,” Diarmaid Gillespie, the director of system operations at Eirgrid, said.
Ireland’s transmission system – the network of power lines which moves electricity from power plants to homes – set a new record for demand.
Battery usage reached 362 MW at one point on Tuesday, November 25, when demand was high and renewable generation from wind was low, Eirgrid said.
This increase in battery usage is playing a role in the new records being set this year, Mr Gillespie added.
“We saw the highest demand for a Sunday since January, with batteries playing an ever-increasing role in meeting peak demand on the power system.”
To help facilitate the increase in battery usage last month, Eirgrid updated its battery systems along with Northern Ireland’s grid operator Soni.
The update to its Energy Storage Power Stations (ESPS) will help it to be more integrated into the real-time electricity market, the company said.
Eirgrid said the data released refers to Ireland only and is based on real-time information.
source