Northern Ireland’s wind generation record was broken 3 times since the year began according to analysis by SONI, the electricity transmission system operator for Northern Ireland.
The wind generation record was broken on 6 January, again on 30th January and then again on Saturday 5th February as Storm Corrie provided high winds leading to record generation of power.
Last weekend also saw the highest ever level of electricity generation from all renewable sources, including solar, reaching 106% of all power required. The excess power generated was then exported via the Moyle Interconnector to Scotland, and to Ireland via the North South Tie Line.
Commenting on the records, SONI Managing Director Alan Campbell said:
“For over 24 hours from Saturday morning, engineers in our control centre managed a power system that comprised more than 70% wind power. As many of us settled down to the rugby on Saturday afternoon, SONI’s expert engineers were working to manage the wind from Storm Corrie. Wind generation produced 105% of all the power that was needed in Northern Ireland – allowing us to export the rest. At lunchtime on Sunday, we then broke the record for combined wind and solar generation.
“These incredible achievements are testament to the innovation and collaboration by SONI, the energy industry, government and the utility regulator, as we all strive to deliver a cleaner energy future. Communities and Landowners also play a key role in this success, and we want to work with all of these stakeholders to break more records, ultimately getting NI to its 2030 target of the 70% of all power consumed from renewable sources, and yet further again to achieve our Net Zero targets.”
The statistics make for impressive reading.
On Saturday at 13.15, 1059 megawatts (MW) of electricity was generated by wind, which beats the record set the previous weekend of 1,043MW.
On Sunday a new Northern Ireland peak total renewables record was set of 1,084MW, with 1,015MW coming from wind and 69MW from solar.