To incentivise further future electricity interconnection with neighbouring countries/markets, the Programme for Government and Climate Action Plan commit DECC to updating Ireland’s existing interconnector policy. Action 110 of the Climate Action Plan 2021 further requires that this update must take place by Q4 2022. 

DECC International and Offshore Energy division will update the interconnection policy via two principle workstreams: 1) Public Consultation; 2) Procuring an external energy consultancy to conduct a study into the impact of increased interconnection on achieving Ireland’s increased climate and energy ambition, which will form the evidence for updating Government’s existing policy.

The scope of the proposed study includes an assessment of: 

• The impact, including economic and climate rationale, for developing further interconnection beyond the proposed Celtic and Green interconnectors, on achieving Ireland’s 2030 and post 2030 climate and energy ives.

• The extent to which clear signalling by Government on delivery of future interconnection capacity would impact delivery of 80% renewable electricity, including 5 GW of ORE, by 2030, and the longer-term ive of achieving net zero by 2050.

• To include consideration of the impact of further interconnection on de-risking renewables development, system operation and security of supply, in the context of Ireland’s energy and climate ives. 

• The extent to which further interconnection can contribute to the decarbonisation of Irish power generation and electricity consumed in Ireland, by replacing domestic fossil fuel generation. 

• The impact of further interconnection on total power system costs. 

• Consideration of the optimal countries/markets for Ireland to interconnect with, and whether priority should be placed on developing further interconnection with Great Britain or the EU IEM.