{"id":35215,"date":"2026-03-01T22:22:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T03:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/03\/01\/power-grid-facing-challenging-situation-says-eirgrid\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T22:22:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T03:22:47","slug":"power-grid-facing-challenging-situation-says-eirgrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/03\/01\/power-grid-facing-challenging-situation-says-eirgrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Power grid facing &#8216;challenging situation&#8217;, says EirGrid"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"maincontent\" role=\"main\">\n<div id=\"main\" itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Article\">\n<header>      <\/header>\n<div>\n<p><span>                                                   Updated \/ Thursday, 26 Feb 2026 14:25                               \t\t<\/span>     <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<figure id=\"main-article-image\">\n<p>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" itemprop=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/images\/001c6a2f-800.jpg\" alt=\"sample caption\">             <\/p><figcaption data-epic-field=\"thumbnail_caption\">EirGrid said it expects there will be &#8216;a steeper&#8217; growth in demand out to 2030<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<section itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-epic-field=\"content\">\n<p>The operator of the national grid has warned of &#8220;a potentially challenging situation&#8221; in meeting electricity demand between 2026 and 2028.<\/p>\n<p>EirGrid said it expects there will be &#8220;a steeper&#8221; growth in demand out to 2030, with &#8220;a steadier increase&#8221; in growth between 2030 and 2035.<\/p>\n<p>The State body said the demand growth will come from data centres, and the increased electrification of transport and heat, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps.<\/p>\n<p>It also pointed to &#8220;delays in generation capacity&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>EirGrid said Temporary Emergency Generation facilities and the Moneypoint Power Plant in Co Clare are available as &#8220;out of market measures to provide critical back-up generation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>It said the facilities &#8220;will be called upon in the event of a shortfall in market-based capacity and where alerts on the system are likely&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p alt=\"Power grid facing 'challenging situation' - Eirgrid\" data-description data-embed=\"rte-player\" data-id=\"22588023\" data-ot-category=\"C0004\" data-title><span><span>We need your consent to load this rte-player content<\/span><span>We use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.<\/span>Manage Preferences<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Head of Power System Insights and Research Design Authority at EirGrid Marc Senouci said they will be &#8220;critical back-up&#8221; over the next couple of years from an adequacy and security perspective.<\/p>\n<p>In its annual All-Island Resource Adequacy Assessment, which looks at the balance between electricity demand and supply, EirGrid also said there will be &#8220;a need for further generation to meet demand&#8221; in the early part of the next decade ranging from 200 megawatts to 400 megawatts.<\/p>\n<p>The national grid operator said the proportion of the total electricity supply being by datacentres is rising.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Senouci said the level is currently in the &#8220;low 20% of total demand&#8221; but he added that &#8220;as we move into the next decade, we&#8217;re seeing that rise closer to the low 30s percentage perspective&#8221;.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/images\/000f48a9-614.jpg?ratio=1.78\"><figcaption>Data centres will be using up to one third of Ireland&#8217;s power in the 2030s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>EirGrid said over the next 10 years, the sources of electricity supply will continue to change as the country transitions to a predominantly renewable power system.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Senouci said as society consumes electricity in different ways, and amid the transition to a renewable-led transmission system, &#8220;the electricity industry will need to identify new ways to meet growing demand for energy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He said as the landscape of demand and generation supply changes, and as electricity demand increases, &#8220;government policy will help guide the transition, but a coordinated effort to manage both the volume and type of new capacity will be needed&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In addition, it&#8217;s crucial that the capacity market delivers new capacity efficiently, and the type and volume of capacity needed to underpin the energy transition.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<div>\n<h4>More stories on<\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>                             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/images\/0022da69-300.jpg\" alt title=\"Fergal O'Brien\">                                              <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated \/ Thursday, 26 Feb 2026 14:25 EirGrid said it expects there will be &#8216;a steeper&#8217; growth in demand out to 2030 The operator of the national grid has warned of &#8220;a potentially challenging situation&#8221; in meeting electricity demand between 2026 and 2028. EirGrid said it expects there will be &#8220;a steeper&#8221; growth in demand [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}