AQW 16656/17-22

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 22/03/2021
Answered On Date: 02/04/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail the amount of energy, in cost and power, bought by Northern Ireland from peat-powered power plants based in the Republic of Ireland in each of the past five years.

Answer:

The Single Electricity Market (SEM) is the wholesale market for the trading of electricity on the island of Ireland. All generators with an output above 10MW operating in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland must participate in the SEM where their electricity is traded. Suppliers in both NI and the Republic of Ireland then purchase their energy in this same market.

Given the nature of these arrangements, electricity bought by individual suppliers in the market is not broken down and attributed to individual generators.

The most recent statistics from the 2018 Electricity Supplier Fuel Mix indicated that 5% of the total electricity generation in the SEM was produced by peat generation. The last peat burning power station in Ireland, Lough Ree power plant at Lanesborough on the Longford-Roscommon border, ceased production on 18th December 2020.