Ireland’s grid operator has launched a consultation to clarify the role of electricity storage in supporting the country’s 2030 climate targets.
EirGrid, the electricity transmission system operator (TSO), which manages the flow of electricity in Ireland’s electricity grid, is calling for industry feedback on a proposed procurement mechanism and operational considerations for an initial phase of procuring a minimum volume of 201 MW of long-duration electricity storage (LDES) in Ireland.
The consultation follows the publication of a highly anticipated Electricity Storage Policy Framework (ESPF) by Ireland's Department of Climate, Energy and Environment (DCEE) in July 2024, which called for the immediate procurement of LDES services with the capacity to deliver electricity to the transmission system for a duration of four hours or more.
LDES units have been lauded as an important asset class to deliver flexibility to support system operation. LDES units are different to shorter term battery energy storage systems (BESS), which typically store energy for 1-4 hours. By contrast, LDES units have the potential both to store energy for much longer durations – 8 hours plus – and operate at a larger scale, making them a cost-effective option to increase grid reliability and resilience in Ireland. LDES asset capability can help by importing during high renewable output periods and exporting during lower renewable output periods, for example to manage evening demand ramps as solar generation reduces.
The Irish government’s Climate Action Plan outlined the urgent need for an energy storage policy to support a 75% reduction in power sector carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. EirGrid, in its 2023 renewable energy policy ‘roadmap’ (206-page / 9.14MB PDF), estimates that Ireland will need to build around 2.4 GW of LDES capacity to support Ireland’s net zero goals.
In a report published last year, research firm Cornwall Insight said there was “no policy, regulatory or commercial drivers to incentivise investment in LDES capacity” in Ireland and the country ran the risk of not hitting its national target of generating 80% of its energy from renewable energy sources by 2030.
Richard Murphy, an energy law expert at Pinsent Masons, who has been discussing a suitable revenue model for storage in Ireland with relevant stakeholders, said establishing a procurement mechanism for LDES would be critical for increasing flexibility in the electricity market. “Ireland is at the forefront of mass integration of variable, intermittent renewable generation,” he said. “This brings with it increasing complexity to system operations. LDES is needed in Ireland as a valuable source of flexibility to help manage these issues.”
While Murphy said that this initial phase would be targeted at dealing with a country wide problem of dispatch down in Ireland – where renewables are being turned down because of system-wide security reasons or local network bottlenecks – he said locational elements would be an important part of this and future procurement processes for storage in Ireland. “Although it is designed as a technology neutral procurement, it is likely that projects located in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price will be very well placed for this initial procurement,” he said.
He added that LDES at this shorter duration of four hours compared to some other markets for LDES, could be rolled out using proven technologies such as lithium-ion battery storage, which is known to be cost competitive and have good round trip efficiency; and there was also considerable potential for units located in constrained areas of the country, and sites that are co-located projects with existing transmission connection offers to be successful as such units can offer more timely delivery.
However, he said the market also needed to look at a bigger scale and longer term for LDES. “There is a need to establish an optimum quantity of storage in Ireland over 2030-2040 by reference to system need,” he said. “That should be the starting point for all future longer duration storage procurements in Ireland – what problem is it seeking to solve – and build an investible procurement mechanism from there. As we move to longer duration storage frameworks in Ireland, operational control of how these assets are managed will also be important.”
The consultation comes as EirGrid published its outlook for winter 2025-26, indicating that it expects to draw as much as 20% of its electricity requirement from Great Britain and Northern Ireland through its East West Interconnector (EWIC) and Greenlink interconnector during the winter when electricity demand is at its peak.
LDES may be equally important for Great Britain’s energy market in achieving its net zero goals, where the UK government and Ofgem are implementing a new ‘cap and floor’ revenue support scheme for LDES, which includes BESS and other technologies. This will provide a guaranteed minimum revenue stream – the floor – and a limit on revenues – the cap – for LDES operators.
In Ireland, Murphy said EirGrid is proposing an operational envelope model as part of this initial procurement, as well as a revenue “floor and share” mechanism, which he said “should help provide revenue certainty for prospective LDES investors”. However, the proposed 10-year contract differs to the UK’s regulated revenue model, which currently offers 25 years, or a minimum of 20 years in cases where a shorter duration is requested.
Murphy said further details on Ireland’s floor payment scheme will be determined as part of a second consultation. He said a number of aspects required clarification, including how the floor will be indexed, how it interacts with the capacity market and how market revenues will be calculated. He said it would also be important for the grid operator to confirm clear asset ownership boundaries with other assets that may be co-located on the site with the same developer but could be participating in other revenue models on a standalone basis.
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