- Enel X secured 218 MW of demand response capacity for October 2022 – September 2023, the largest portfolio ever awarded to the company in Ireland
Dublin, May 9th, 2019 – Enel X, the Enel Group’s advanced energy services business line, was awarded 218 MW of demand response capacity in the latest auction held by EirGrid Group, Ireland’s Transmission System Operator (TSO), to be delivered between October 1st, 2022 and September 30th, 2023. As a result of the award, the company will maintain its market leadership in Ireland during 2022-2023 by managing 52% of the island’s demand response capacity in the period, which is the largest portfolio the company has ever been awarded in Ireland.
“With this major award, we will contribute to even greater system sustainability in Ireland through the flexibility ensured by our portfolio of commercial and industrial customers, while providing those customers with opportunities to create more business value from their flexibility, making it a win-win for Ireland’s entire energy ecosystem,” said Tony Whittle, Head of Enel X Ireland.
The demand response capacity was awarded to Enel X during Ireland’s first-ever forward base auction for the island’s capacity market. Forward base auctions are planned once a year in Ireland to ensure in a cost-effective way that there is enough electricity supply to meet increases in energy demand projected in approximately four years’ time. The Irish capacity market integrates the island’s electricity market with the rest of Europe under a new wholesale market arrangement, the Integrated Single Electricity Market (I-SEM). This new market design can create more opportunities for dynamic transactions and trading, with the aim to facilitate the integration of more renewables in the system, and ultimately to drive more efficient wholesale electricity pricing.
Demand response programmes are set up to pay large commercial and industrial (C&I) energy customers, such as data centres, manufacturers, and commercial real estate companies, to adjust their energy demand by either reducing or increasing their power consumption, with the aim to stabilise the grid. The Irish demand response programme pays users year round for being on standby, ready to respond in the event of a grid emergency, as well as providing incremental payments if and when they reduce their energy demand from the grid.
Enel X, through its local subsidiary, has been providing demand response services in Ireland since 2011, and has maintained its position as leading provider of demand response in the Capacity Market since its inaugural 2018-2019 delivery period.
Editors notes
Enel X is Enel’s global business line dedicated to developing innovative products and digital solutions in sectors in which energy is showing the greatest potential for transformation: cities, homes, industries and electric mobility. Enel X holds the leading position in demand response programmes globally, with over 6.2 GW of demand response capacity currently managed and assigned in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania.
Enel is a multinational power company and a leading integrated player in the global power, gas and renewables markets. It is one of Europe’s largest utilities and figures among Europe’s leading power companies in terms of installed capacity and reported EBITDA. The Group is present in over 30 countries worldwide, producing energy with around 90 GW of managed capacity. Enel distributes electricity and gas through a network of over 2.2 million kilometres, and with around 73 million business and household end users globally, the Group has the largest customer base among its European peers. Enel’s renewables arm Enel Green Power already manages over 43 GW of wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower plants in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
