Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

146. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the progress made in the development of flexible electricity generation capacity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49078/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Government has set a target of having at least 2GW of new, flexible, gas-fired generation capacity by 2030 in our Climate Action Plans to ensure secure generation of electricity at time of low renewable output and/or high demand. This allows for the integration of a large volume of wind and solar electricity projects that displace the need to run fossil fuel plants for baseload, without compromising security of supply. In addition, increasing amounts of batteries, long duration storage, interconnector capacity and demand side response have also been procured in recent capacity market auctions which will lessen Ireland's dependence on fossil fuel imports in the coming years.

Dispatchable generation capacity is procured through the Capacity Remuneration Mechanism (CRM) under the overall regulatory supervision of the Single Electricity Market Committee (SEMC). The dispatchable generation capacity sought via the CRM auctions are delivered by developers in the open market to be enduring capacity that will support an up to 80% renewable powered electricity system into the 2030s. The successful and expeditious delivery of all capacity market projects is a critical component in ensuring enduring security of supply.