Resilience and Emergency Planning

EirGrid are responsible for the safe, secure operation of Ireland’s electricity system. In an electricity supply emergency, it may be necessary to restrict customers' consumption of electricity.

We carefully balance supply and demand on a minute-by-minute basis. This involves the movement of large volumes of electricity around the island of Ireland. It is then supplied to large energy users and to homes and businesses via ESB Networks.

We are always working to maintain a resilient power system. It's important that we continue to plan for increased demand and unexpected events.

Part of this is the Shaping Our Electricity Future plan. This is our strategy for integrating more renewables onto the grid. There is great potential to use renewable energy sources in Ireland, especially wind energy. In a future with greater demand, these energy sources will be key to protecting our electricity supply while supporting Ireland's climate action goals.

Grid Alerts

If there's a risk that demand will exceed our current supply, we issue an alert to the electricity sector. Alerts may occur in the winter when electricity demand is at its highest, or in the summer when maintenance outages coincide with high forced outages of generation plants.

Our Grid Alerts page goes into more detail on the different alert levels and what they mean.

Controlled outages (sometimes referred to as load shedding) are a measure of last resort. They prevent a more serious event. Large non-domestic energy users may see their electricity supply temporarily curtailed. Some domestic customers may also experience temporary controlled outages. By doing this we avoid extensive, uncontrolled supply interruptions. 

We work with ESB Networks to make controlled outages as short-lived as possible. We also rotate the locations that are impacted by them. If you think you are experiencing a controlled outage, please visit ESB's website powercheck.ie for up-to-date information.

Blackouts

Controlled outages are different to a blackout. Blackouts occur when there are uncontrolled outages across a widespread area. One of the reasons for controlled outages is to avoid widespread blackouts.

When there is a blackout, we follow our Power System Restoration Plan to get the power back on as quickly as possible.