There is palpable air of crisis within the Irish energy sector right now that is eerily redolent of banking in 2007. And just like the financial crisis, this has nothing to do with external factors, not President Putin of Russia, not the war in Ukraine nor the Nord Stream pipeline.
Just as the weakness in the financial system was rooted in the toxic loan books of the banks, not in the collapse of Lehman Brothers, this is a crisis that is entirely home baked. SSE Airtricity’s enormous price hikes announced on Friday represent an immediate headache for the government and a huge worry for Irish households and businesses. It is forecast that UK energy bills are headed for near £7,000 (€8,250) a year next year. There is talk that businesses in certain sectors will shut up shop and lay off staff rather than suffer higher energy bills.
Ireland may face a similar scenario to that of the UK. The goalposts for next month’s cost of living budget keep moving. Yet there is a deeper malaise within the Irish energy system that should not be masked by the present bout of soaring energy inflation. With or without the war in Ukraine, Ireland was already heading for a deepening supply crisis this winter after five years of poor planning.
The prospect of rationing and levies for power usage at peak times is not related to the rising cost of gas. It is down solely to how badly we have run and planned our energy system. As reported here today, there will be a €100 levy on every electricity bill next year to pay for “imperfections” on the grid; essentially to cover the system’s failings.
As the country faces its greatest energy crisis in close to 50 years, it’s therefore surprising that Ireland does not have an energy minister. Responsibility falls to Eamon Ryan, minister for transport, climate, environment and communications. Indeed, it seems that Ryan is the minister for practically everything else but energy. There is not even a junior minister with responsibility for energy. That, quite frankly, is bizarre.
It ensures that energy is only ever seen through the prism of climate and the environment. Energy policy is hugely important to Ireland’s climate change ambitions, yet it cannot be viewed in such splendid isolation.
Back in 2007 when Ryan was actually the minister for energy, the now Green Party leader introduced a round of offshore oil and gas licensing by highlighting Ireland’s vulnerability as an energy importer.
In banning future oil and gas exploration some 14 years later Ryan pointed to Ireland’s dismal record in oil and gas exploration, with two strikes in more than 50 years. It is far from sure that recoverable fossil fuels resources lie beneath the ocean bed, he logically argued, whereas it is indisputable that Ireland has one of the richest wind resources in Europe. The future is wind.
Ryan is right, yet at present renewable energy’s limitations are clear. Wind contribution to the grid can fluctuate from 30 per cent to less than 1 per cent. That will not change wildly with new renewable capacity. The country will continue to have a need for fossil fuel to generate electricity until storage technology improves.
Yet Ryan and his government colleagues seem happy that those fossil fuels be imported. Extensions to existing licences, not covered by the ban, at both Providence Resources’ Barryroe field off the Cork coast and Europa Oil’s Inishkea field close to the Corrib field are both sitting on his desk, slowly gathering dust.
If both fields were developed, and there is no certainty they will be, it is possible that by the time they are exhausted, hydrogen storage will be advanced enough to step into the breach.
Yet there is no appetite in government to support existing permit holders. As the Corrib field exhausts, the island of Ireland will rely entirely on gas piped through the Moffat interconnector in Scotland. The country will cede its energy sovereignty to the UK, quite possibly under a Sinn Fein government. The people’s populist party is naturally against offshore exploration.
In June a senior official in the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities said that it would not make sense to become reliant on a single source of gas “no matter how reliable it is”.
A review of Ireland’s energy security is under way — it has been running since November 2019. Laughable.
The scary part is the absence of debate. There is an overriding orthodoxy that rejects the very mention of fossil fuels. That is very 2007.
As a country we havnt had leadership since the 80’s or early 90’s, now we are just managed. If I was running a country I would always have a Threats committee that had to be taken seriously. In this case, fck everyone that sat on or objected to building LNG terminals or undermined the energy sector with the rush to unreliable renewables.
It’s simple. Energy companies saw how the banks got their bailouts in the last recession, and thought “how can we get in on that”.
And so, despite making record profits this year, they’re going to hold us hostage until governments subsidise our bills.
Can we not impose a massive on their profits over X amount
The relative lack of debate on the upcoming energy prices in Ireland over the last few months until Friday has been very surprising to me. It’s almost been a daily topic of conversation in the uk media and online circles. Yet here there was nothing until out of the blue Airtricity dropped their price rise.
The privatisation of lots of our state bodies is really coming home to roost
Thinking, how after 2008, when we were confronted with our financial regulator, we didn’t inspect every regulator. If they put him in that position, what the fuck was put in place in less significant sectors. Now see sipo, our energy regulator, central banks investigation of davys, overseeing hse, ngos. Just endless. Zero forethought, introspection. Just media/time,/circumstances looks under a rock and we go wtf.
Absolutely. Weak leadership is a big problem here.
Lads, there’s enough blame to go around for everyone.
sounds like too complex a thought to me. BURN THE WITCH!!
But the Taoiseach told us every thing wrong in this country is Putin’s fault.
The article: “Ireland’s neglecting the energy sector by over-relying on flaky renewable energy sources over proven oil & gas exploration and extraction has left the country too dependent on energy imports”.
The comments: “Yes, it’s all thanks to the privatization of energy companies and greedy corporations. We need more solar energy!”.
Like he says: it’s your own making. And it will continue after the war is over because you Irish (and the Western Europeans in general) are too thick and mentally colonized to work on your issues.
Open msg to guvernmint: Get off your fucking arses and build wind/solar/wave farms + storage solutions. Or at least acknowledge the fucking issue!
Ww don’t have to manage and build things in the civil service and the government anymore. Hopefully we still have people who can crisis manage. But we (government, local authorities and even people) walk into these and the act surprised when no fixed the problems despite warnings. Am sure the government will keep commissioning reports until they find that agrees with they want.
But it is the same crap with housing, water and energy. I don’t care if it public or privately owned I just want the process to work and if it is not working, then identify the problems and try to fucking fix them. It is not easy but I am tired off the surprised and incompetent attitude of government ministers. There is blame to go around but Trevor Sergeant is in line for a fair whack of it.
This all comes down to gov failure over decades to create a more self reliant economy that can withstand geopolitical shocks . Currently if American multinationals packed up- Ireland would be in the shitter. Why not get onto gas exploration. Or buy reserves when it was cheap? No foresight at all. Same with refugees- we know we will accept them and we know we have a housing crisis- it’s like the government governs by the seat of their pants.
errr, I think Putin has a lot to do with the crisis…
Now see, this kind of stupidity used to get people drawn and quartered
> There is talk that businesses in certain sectors will shut up shop and lay off staff rather than suffer higher energy bills.
A local tyre business shut down the other week beside me because it was costing the owner (1 man business) 200 euro a week to commute to it so he decided to shut down instead.
19 comments
There is palpable air of crisis within the Irish energy sector right now that is eerily redolent of banking in 2007. And just like the financial crisis, this has nothing to do with external factors, not President Putin of Russia, not the war in Ukraine nor the Nord Stream pipeline.
Just as the weakness in the financial system was rooted in the toxic loan books of the banks, not in the collapse of Lehman Brothers, this is a crisis that is entirely home baked. SSE Airtricity’s enormous price hikes announced on Friday represent an immediate headache for the government and a huge worry for Irish households and businesses. It is forecast that UK energy bills are headed for near £7,000 (€8,250) a year next year. There is talk that businesses in certain sectors will shut up shop and lay off staff rather than suffer higher energy bills.
Ireland may face a similar scenario to that of the UK. The goalposts for next month’s cost of living budget keep moving. Yet there is a deeper malaise within the Irish energy system that should not be masked by the present bout of soaring energy inflation. With or without the war in Ukraine, Ireland was already heading for a deepening supply crisis this winter after five years of poor planning.
The prospect of rationing and levies for power usage at peak times is not related to the rising cost of gas. It is down solely to how badly we have run and planned our energy system. As reported here today, there will be a €100 levy on every electricity bill next year to pay for “imperfections” on the grid; essentially to cover the system’s failings.
As the country faces its greatest energy crisis in close to 50 years, it’s therefore surprising that Ireland does not have an energy minister. Responsibility falls to Eamon Ryan, minister for transport, climate, environment and communications. Indeed, it seems that Ryan is the minister for practically everything else but energy. There is not even a junior minister with responsibility for energy. That, quite frankly, is bizarre.
It ensures that energy is only ever seen through the prism of climate and the environment. Energy policy is hugely important to Ireland’s climate change ambitions, yet it cannot be viewed in such splendid isolation.
Back in 2007 when Ryan was actually the minister for energy, the now Green Party leader introduced a round of offshore oil and gas licensing by highlighting Ireland’s vulnerability as an energy importer.
In banning future oil and gas exploration some 14 years later Ryan pointed to Ireland’s dismal record in oil and gas exploration, with two strikes in more than 50 years. It is far from sure that recoverable fossil fuels resources lie beneath the ocean bed, he logically argued, whereas it is indisputable that Ireland has one of the richest wind resources in Europe. The future is wind.
Ryan is right, yet at present renewable energy’s limitations are clear. Wind contribution to the grid can fluctuate from 30 per cent to less than 1 per cent. That will not change wildly with new renewable capacity. The country will continue to have a need for fossil fuel to generate electricity until storage technology improves.
Yet Ryan and his government colleagues seem happy that those fossil fuels be imported. Extensions to existing licences, not covered by the ban, at both Providence Resources’ Barryroe field off the Cork coast and Europa Oil’s Inishkea field close to the Corrib field are both sitting on his desk, slowly gathering dust.
If both fields were developed, and there is no certainty they will be, it is possible that by the time they are exhausted, hydrogen storage will be advanced enough to step into the breach.
Yet there is no appetite in government to support existing permit holders. As the Corrib field exhausts, the island of Ireland will rely entirely on gas piped through the Moffat interconnector in Scotland. The country will cede its energy sovereignty to the UK, quite possibly under a Sinn Fein government. The people’s populist party is naturally against offshore exploration.
In June a senior official in the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities said that it would not make sense to become reliant on a single source of gas “no matter how reliable it is”.
A review of Ireland’s energy security is under way — it has been running since November 2019. Laughable.
The scary part is the absence of debate. There is an overriding orthodoxy that rejects the very mention of fossil fuels. That is very 2007.
As a country we havnt had leadership since the 80’s or early 90’s, now we are just managed. If I was running a country I would always have a Threats committee that had to be taken seriously. In this case, fck everyone that sat on or objected to building LNG terminals or undermined the energy sector with the rush to unreliable renewables.
It’s simple. Energy companies saw how the banks got their bailouts in the last recession, and thought “how can we get in on that”.
And so, despite making record profits this year, they’re going to hold us hostage until governments subsidise our bills.
Can we not impose a massive on their profits over X amount
The relative lack of debate on the upcoming energy prices in Ireland over the last few months until Friday has been very surprising to me. It’s almost been a daily topic of conversation in the uk media and online circles. Yet here there was nothing until out of the blue Airtricity dropped their price rise.
The privatisation of lots of our state bodies is really coming home to roost
Thinking, how after 2008, when we were confronted with our financial regulator, we didn’t inspect every regulator. If they put him in that position, what the fuck was put in place in less significant sectors. Now see sipo, our energy regulator, central banks investigation of davys, overseeing hse, ngos. Just endless. Zero forethought, introspection. Just media/time,/circumstances looks under a rock and we go wtf.
Absolutely. Weak leadership is a big problem here.
Lads, there’s enough blame to go around for everyone.
sounds like too complex a thought to me. BURN THE WITCH!!
But the Taoiseach told us every thing wrong in this country is Putin’s fault.
The article: “Ireland’s neglecting the energy sector by over-relying on flaky renewable energy sources over proven oil & gas exploration and extraction has left the country too dependent on energy imports”.
The comments: “Yes, it’s all thanks to the privatization of energy companies and greedy corporations. We need more solar energy!”.
Like he says: it’s your own making. And it will continue after the war is over because you Irish (and the Western Europeans in general) are too thick and mentally colonized to work on your issues.
Open msg to guvernmint: Get off your fucking arses and build wind/solar/wave farms + storage solutions. Or at least acknowledge the fucking issue!
Ww don’t have to manage and build things in the civil service and the government anymore. Hopefully we still have people who can crisis manage. But we (government, local authorities and even people) walk into these and the act surprised when no fixed the problems despite warnings. Am sure the government will keep commissioning reports until they find that agrees with they want.
But it is the same crap with housing, water and energy. I don’t care if it public or privately owned I just want the process to work and if it is not working, then identify the problems and try to fucking fix them. It is not easy but I am tired off the surprised and incompetent attitude of government ministers. There is blame to go around but Trevor Sergeant is in line for a fair whack of it.
This all comes down to gov failure over decades to create a more self reliant economy that can withstand geopolitical shocks . Currently if American multinationals packed up- Ireland would be in the shitter. Why not get onto gas exploration. Or buy reserves when it was cheap? No foresight at all. Same with refugees- we know we will accept them and we know we have a housing crisis- it’s like the government governs by the seat of their pants.
errr, I think Putin has a lot to do with the crisis…
Now see, this kind of stupidity used to get people drawn and quartered
> There is talk that businesses in certain sectors will shut up shop and lay off staff rather than suffer higher energy bills.
A local tyre business shut down the other week beside me because it was costing the owner (1 man business) 200 euro a week to commute to it so he decided to shut down instead.
Nuclear power would fix this.