Ireland’s electricity transmission system is undergoing significant development and transformation in order to meet natural growth in demand from an increasing population and an expanding economy as well as to accommodate increasing amounts of renewables.
Louise O’Flanagan, head of asset management and engineering with transmission system operator EirGrid, leads the team that oversees transmission assets around the country, and works closely with EirGrid’s Future Planning and Network Projects sections, along with ESB Networks, to ensure that plans for required future infrastructure are executed successfully.
“We are on a really exciting journey at the moment,” says O’Flanagan. “It is the transition and transformation of the power system to take a greatly increased level of renewables. The Climate Action Plan has set a target of 80 per cent renewables on the grid by 2030. We need to look at what the grid will look like in 2030. It will be a very different asset base to the one we manage now.”
She says the design of the grid is not best suited to renewables. “The transmission system was developed to bring power from large generating plants like Moneypoint, Ardnacrusha and Poolbeg to the distribution system. The transmission system is the backbone of the power system, it is the motorways of power and is largely made up of 400kv, 220kv and 110kv overhead and underground cables. We also have substations that change the voltage up and down. This is what makes up our asset base. My team’s role is to ensure that the asset base is maintained and repaired, and then replaced when it comes to its end of life.”
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That asset base will expand over time with hundreds of kilometres of new cables being added along with supporting infrastructure. But developing new assets will be avoided where possible. “As we move to 80 per cent renewables we want to make the most of the existing grid,” she says. “It requires a huge investment to build new assets. Maximising the efficiency of existing assets is a quick win.”
That means ensuring the assets last as long as possible. “We are certified to the ISO55001 asset management systems standard. We are planning assets to last 40, 50 or even 60 years. The decisions we make now will have implications far into the future, and we need to plan for the full life cycle. Hence the ISI accreditation. We have billions of euro invested in assets, and we have to get the most out of them.”
When assets are replaced the aim is to upgrade what is there. “The Powering up Dublin project will replace older cables that have reached their end of life. They have been in the ground for between 40 and 60 years, and we are replacing them with new ones with greater capacity. This will help us meet increasing demand in the Dublin area as well as accommodate more renewables on the system, particularly from offshore wind farms off the east coast.”
Innovation plays a key role. “We are using new technologies like dynamic line rating (DLR) and dynamic power controllers (DPCs) to help maximise the efficiency of the grid. DLR measures the temperature of the conductors in real time. Temperature affects the carrying capacity of the conductor. Broadly speaking the lower the temperature the higher the capacity. By measuring temperature in real time the amount of power carried on the system can be based on actual weather conditions. We are at the beginning of this journey. We pilot each new technology and what is successful we look at how to deploy it.”
Climate adaptation is another key aspect of the work of O’Flanagan’s team. “We look at the impact of flooding in coastal areas, for example, and make sure the grid is safe and secure in those locations. We also look at the impact of an increase in temperatures on the grid carrying capacity. We are getting a lot more frequent heavy downpours and that affects drainage around our substations. We look at the risk of floods, model their impacts and assess the need for mitigation measures.”
The team also plays a central role in making sure EirGrid is able to implement the technological solutions that enable new projects to include biodiversity-friendly features. “We work very closely with our colleagues in the public engagement team. We look at how to include nature in the design of our projects. One of the initiatives is to look at introducing vegetation over our underground cables. We are looking at international best practice there. We can’t plant deep rooted trees, of course, but we are looking at what we can do. We are trying to do something positive for nature, and we are running pilot schemes to see what might work for us and for nature.”