Power outages in Ireland are “unlikely” this winter, Environment Minister Eamon Ryan has said.
Two power stations in Cork and Dublin are currently offline, leading to concerns that there could be blackouts when energy demands soar over winter.
Minister Ryan said: “Our expectation is now that we will not have outages this winter.
“You never know as such with power station breakdown, something similar to the loss of the two large gas power stations which went out earlier this year.
“You always have developments that you can’t completely expect. But subject to the return of those two gas power stations, we expect to be able to get through this winter period.”
The two power stations are undergoing maintenance and are scheduled to be generating electricity again by October and November.
Gas power remains Ireland’s largest source of energy, accounting for 50% of electricity consumption in 2020, down from 52% in 2019.
In that same year, 43% of energy came from renewable sources, such as wind, bio and hydro energy - up from 36% in 2019.
Other sources of fuel include coal, oil and peat.
The Government is committed to generating at least 70% of the country’s energy needs from renewable sources by 2030.
