Ireland’s Commission for Regulation of Utilities has released its inaugural national assessment of grid flexibility needs, providing detailed projections for the country’s electricity distribution networks. The assessment quantifies approximately 234 MW and 58 GWh of potential upward flexibility requirements on distribution networks in 2028, suggesting multiple potential resources could contribute to meeting these demands, including battery storage systems, managed electric vehicle charging, and industrial demand response capabilities.
However, the assessment highlights a critical distinction: flexibility requirements vary substantially depending on specific location within the electrical network. The analysis of the Naas 38 kV/10 kV substation illustrates this point, identifying a modeled requirement of 0.6 MW and 3 MWh concentrated in January 2028, with the need disappearing after planned reinforcement work scheduled for 2030. The location-specific nature of these constraints means that flexibility resources must be electrically connected in ways that directly affect the constrained equipment during periods when that equipment faces limitations.
The assessment emphasizes that a battery or flexible resource operating elsewhere in Ireland’s grid, while potentially valuable for broader balancing services and renewable energy integration, may not address particular local constraints. Similarly, electric vehicle charging flexibility only relieves specific transformer constraints when the vehicles are connected to appropriate locations on the network, and their charging must remain adjustable without interfering with required driving patterns. These principles extend to other flexible loads including heating systems, refrigeration, and industrial demand.
Timing represents an additional complexity in assessing flexibility needs. The Naas figures quantifying both power capacity and energy volume do not necessarily indicate that a continuous five-hour battery discharge is required. Actual requirements depend on the duration of individual constraint events, recovery periods between them, and operational requirements of potential flexibility providers. Evidence from the British market offers a cautionary example: UK Power Networks ceased seeking flexibility tenders for certain single-transformer substations experiencing 24-hour constraint durations, as available flexibility options could not address those requirements on both technical and economic grounds, making traditional network reinforcement more suitable.
As Ireland’s distribution networks increasingly incorporate electric vehicles, heat pumps, distributed battery storage, and distributed generation sources, identifying and assessing flexibility requirements at precise electrical locations becomes progressively more important. While national capacity estimates provide useful context, actual investment and procurement decisions require substantially more specific technical evidence about where flexibility can be delivered and when it is needed.
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