Blog: The electricity grid and Amber Alerts

In recent weeks there has been in increase in Amber Alerts issued by EirGrid. In our latest explainer blog Justin Moran explains what it means for the power system.

What is an Amber Alert?

As the transmission system operator EirGrid is responsible for the safe and secure operation of Ireland’s electricity system.

When there is a problem on the system they issue an alert to generators and control centres. There are three levels of alert – Amber, Red and Blue – and Amber is the lowest level.

What does an Amber Alert mean?

An Amber Alert is issued when a single “event” would give rise to a “reasonable possibility” that there would be a failure on the electricity system which could give rise to power cuts.

Put another way, it means that while the electricity system is operating fine right now if something went wrong – a generator unexpectedly shut down for example – then there would be a serious problem that could lead to a power shortage.

If something did happen EirGrid’s control centre would have a number of options such as calling on demand side units (where a large energy user, or co-ordinated groups of smaller energy users, reduce the amount of power they are using) or activating other generators. They would do everything possible to prevent a power cut from taking place.

You can find out more about how EirGrid and SONI – the system operator in the North – respond to Amber Alerts by watching this video.

Why are they being issued now?

There are three main reasons Amber Alerts have taken place in recent weeks.

• First, the cold weather means that electricity demand has been very high, at record levels.
• Second, there have been problems with several large fossil fuel generators which have been unavailable for technical or maintenance issues. When an Amber Alert was issued in December, for example, fossil fuel generation at Moneypoint, Whitegate and Tarbert was unavailable.
• Third, at times when the demand was very high and fossil fuel generators out of action there was little wind energy available.

What is the solution?

In the immediate term the priority will be to work to ensure the fossil fuel generators that have been down are repaired and brought back online.

In the longer term we need to develop a stronger electricity grid. This will mean greater levels of interconnection to other countries so that power can be moved more efficiently from where it is produced to where it is needed.

We also need better market structures to allow power to be traded more efficiently between the island of Ireland and Great Britain following Brexit.

And we need more renewable generation; this means more onshore wind farms, new solar and battery storage projects, and speeding up the development of offshore wind energy.

Combined, this will ensure a strong, stable, electricity grid as we move steadily towards our 70 per cent renewable electricity target for 2030 and, beyond, to a zero-carbon electricity system.