Dublin battery system to support the Irish power grid

In a bid to support Irish grid stability, Electricity Supply Board (ESB) has opened a major battery plant at its Poolbeg site in Dublin, which will add 75MW/150MWh of fast-acting energy storage.

According to the Dublin-based, state-owned energy company, the battery energy storage system (BESS) is currently the largest site of its kind in commercial operation in Ireland.

The site is the latest in ESB’s project pipeline, consisting of sites in Dublin and Cork, representing an investment of up to €300 million ($323 million).

These high-capacity batteries can store excess renewable energy for discharge when required, and in doing so, help to support Ireland in reaching its ambitious climate targets by 2030 and ESB in achieving its Net Zero by 2040 strategy.

The project, operational since late November 2023, has the capability of providing 75MW of energy for two hours to Ireland’s electricity system.

This plant is located at ESB’s Poolbeg Energy Hub in Dublin where some of the latest technologies that will support the future delivery of renewable energy including batteries, hydrogen and offshore wind will be deployed over the next decade.

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Eamon Ryan TD, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, said in a release: “Energy storage like this major battery plant at the ESB’s flagship site in Poolbeg will be a core part of Ireland’s new renewable energy transition and will play a key role in balancing our new, homegrown power supply.

“No electricity system can operate without a backup. In Ireland this has traditionally been provided by fossil fuel generation. However, into the future, we can store increasing amounts of wind and solar power in energy storage projects and use it to support the system instead of relying on dirty and expensive coal or gas.”

Added Jim Dollard, ESB executive director at Generation and Trading: “Today marks another important milestone for ESB as we launch our latest fast-acting grid-scale battery unit that will support grid stability and help to deliver more renewables on Ireland’s electricity system.

“The location of this project, at our Poolbeg Energy Hub, will build on our longstanding history of innovation at the site. We are looking forward to continuing to work with our partners to deliver the remainder of our projects in development this year.”

ESB is working with partners Fluence, as well as Irish companies, Kirby Group and Powercomm Group, in the delivery of these projects at Poolbeg, Aghada, Inchicore, and South Wall in the Republic of Ireland – the remainder of these projects are due to be completed this year.