Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 16 June 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

North-South Interconnector: Discussion

12:00 pm

Mr. Garrett Blaney:

It is in the order of 6,000 MW. That means there are between 1,500 MW to 1,800 MW in the North and 6,000 MW in the South.

The Senator mentioned the HVDC interconnectors. There are two HVDC interconnectors, one is in Scotland and one is in the Republic. They both have nominally 500 MW capacity. Obviously, they connect to the market in Great Britain, which is ten times bigger. It is 60,000 MW or 70,000 MW maximum demand, compared with the much smaller capacity on this island.