Power grid performed well during the storms
IN response to Tom Baldwin’s letter of October 18 (‘Power failures’) Eir Grid’s priority during storm Ophelia was to ensure that Ireland had a secure supply of electricity.
In order to achieve this, the electricity system had to remain balanced at all times.
Though wind levels were very high, we operated with a mix of generation sources to ensure the stability of the power system.
The difference between the forecasts for wind generation output and the actual output seen by Mr Baldwin was driven by a few different factors.
Some of the reductions observed were caused by wind turbines cutting out automatically at very high wind speeds (for plant safety reasons).
Other reductions occurred because the networks to which the wind farms were connected were damaged during the storm.
The remaining reductions were due to Eir Grid engineers intentionally holding back wind generation during the storm to maintain stability on the grid during extreme weather conditions.
I would also point out that during the storm, the transmission system performed very well and not a single fault occurred that resulted in customers losing supply.
All of the reported outages to electricity users were due to faults on the distribution system, not the transmission system.
MARIE HAYDEN, Scenario Planning Manager at
Eir Grid.