Battery discharge reached a record high of 362 MW in Ireland’s transmission system in November.
According to the latest data from state transmission system operator (TSO) EirGrid, this record was reached on Tuesday, November 25, when demand was high and renewable generation from wind energy was low.
This new record for battery shipments comes as EirGrid and fellow TSO SONI launched a major update last month, allowing battery units to be fully integrated into the real-time electricity market. The launch of Ireland’s new planning and dispatch programme was discussed last month in a guest article on Solar Power Portal by Yayu Yang, product manager at GridBeyond.
Overall, this new change allows batteries to charge and discharge energy more efficiently in the electricity market.
Diarmaid Gillespie, Director of System Operations at EirGrid, said: “As we expected in November, with the clocks changed, the evenings getting shorter and the weather colder, we have continued to see an increase in demand for the system over the past month.
“Notably, since January this year, we have seen the highest demand on a Sunday, with batteries playing an increasingly important role in meeting peak demand on the energy system.”
The highest demand peak among Gillespie referrers occurred on the last day of the month, Sunday, November 30, with a record peak of 5,144 MW. According to EirGrid, total demand for electricity systems in Ireland last month was 3,088 GWh, up from the 2,969 GWh recorded in October.
Of that total demand for electricity systems, 40.6% came from renewable sources, of which 34.6% came from wind energy and only 1% from solar energy. The share of renewable energy sources has increased by more than five percentage points compared to the same period a year ago, when 34% of electricity came from renewable energy sources in November 2024.
The remaining share came from gas generation, namely 42%, while 17% was imported via interconnection.
