Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 16 July 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy
Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector
2:00 am
Mr. Cathal Marley:
We will take the question about cyber and then there is a question for Mr. Cunniffe to answer.
On cyber, one of the core roles - probably the core role - of EirGrid is the safe operation of the system. Obviously, we have to build the system out and we have to onload renewables. That is critical. Fundamentally, however, what we are doing now and what we will be doing into the future is making sure that the grid operates effectively. That is why we are incredibly careful how much stuff we bring on, how much wind we bring on and how the demand behaves. We have to make sure it is stable. We have seen what has happened in Iberia. That is why we also have to keep some conventional plant on the system. Even if we had tonnes of renewables, that keeps stability. It is called inertia. It makes sure the system operates safely.
The other thing is that everything is more technological and is IT driven, so we have invested very heavily in cyber, protection and recovery, mainly protection, and tools to make sure we can track and see things coming on.
As regards the system operating safely, there are two things. One is cyber and cyberattacks. That is critical/ We have done a huge amount of work on it. We work with the national cyber council-----
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