The level of ‘dispatch down’ of wind on the island of Ireland hit 7.7% in 2019, up from 6% a year earlier, according to new figures.
In the North and Republic a total of 11,994 gigawatt-hours was generated from wind in the 12 months, with 1008GWh curtailed or constrained.
The level hit 6.9% in the Republic, corresponding to 711GWh, while in the North it was 10.7%, or 297GWh of generation.
Dispatch down of renewable energy refers to the amount of renewable energy that is available but cannot be used by the system. This is because of broad power system limitations, known as curtailments, or local network limitations, known as constraints.
“Overall, the dispatch-down of energy from wind resources increased from 6% in 2018 to 7.7% in 2019. However, during 2019 an additional 918 GWh of wind energy was generated compared to 2018,” said the annual constraint and curtailment report published by system operator Eirgrid.
“The level of dispatch-down is affected by a number of factors which vary from year to year, such as the amount of wind installed on the system, and the capacity factor of the wind generation. The total capacity of wind generation on the island rose by 467 MW in 2018 while the average wind capacity factor increased by 1% to 27% in 2019.”