42% of Ireland’s electricity powered by gas in April – Gas Networks Ireland
Gas generated 42% of Ireland’s electricity in April, new figures from Gas Network Ireland show today.
After a notably windy period in February and March, gas was the most dominant contributor to electricity generation last month as it surpassed wind energy’s contribution of 36%.
Gas Network Ireland said that gas was the primary source of electricity in ten of the 12 months last year.
It noted that the 42% of electricity generated by gas in April represented a monthly increase from 36% in March, but a substantial decrease year-on-year from the 47% figure recorded for April of last year.
Sectoral demand for gas was also down both on a monthly and an annual basis across a number of industries.
Monthly decreases were recorded across the construction (-16%), education (-15%), leisure/sport arenas (-18%), office (-17%), retail (-11%), air travel (-28%), hotel (-23%) and residential (-28%) sectors.
Meanwhile, annual decreases were also recorded across the air travel (-29%), hotel (-18%), and retail (-10%) sectors.
Gas Networks Ireland’s Director of Strategy and Regulation, Edwina Nyhan, said that wind contributions peaked at 81% in April but given the variable nature of weather dependent renewable energy sources, there were also times in the month when the wind supply dropped almost completely and contributed less than 1%of electricity generation.
“As is typical of Ireland’s evolving energy mix, gas remained a consistent backup through periods of low wind. While during isolated periods of extreme bad weather, such as Storm Kathleen, wind energy’s contributions to electricity generation were particularly high,” she added.
Article Source: 42% of Ireland’s electricity powered by gas in April – Gas Networks Ireland
