Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

Grid Link Project: EirGrid

9:30 am

Mr. Fintan Slye:

It inherently increases the transfer capacity of the underlying transmission grid to move power. Mr. Norton has addressed the second part of the question, regarding how long it will last. We have looked at it out to 2020 and 2025 and assessed this against projections for growth of the economy overall, specifically looking at the sectors of growth in various sectors of the economy in that region, to ensure it will be adequate for the needs of the economy. We had it assessed and verified through an independent review by Indecon Consulting, which we also published alongside the strategy. It looked at the new grid development strategy we proposed and examined whether it would deliver to meet the needs of the economy and society region by region. The new option for Grid Link was identified as an option in the report and was included in the analysis.