Report on the Committee's review into electricity policy : Part 1: Security of electricity supply, together with the minutes of proceedings of the Committee relating to the report, minutes of evidence

Security of electricity supply is about keeping the lights on during peaks and troughs in electricity demand throughout the North. The Committee's review focussed on the possibility of those demands not being met. The review found that from the end of 2015 Northern Ireland may have a lower surplus margin, which is the amount of slack in the system. In effect, the result will be that, if any large generating plant were to have a prolonged fault after this time, there would not be enough electricity generated to cope with demand. Also, many large businesses have standby generation capacity which could, conceivably, be fed into the grid during times of peak demand and this is currently not being utilised. The Committee is making a number of recommendations based on these and other findings to the Utility Regulator, the electricity industry and Executive Ministers. These include exploring the use of existing cross-border standby connections and getting large businesses involved in assisting during times of peak demand. An urgent decision on the proposed North-South Interconnector is needed.