Recently, I attended and spoke at the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Conference in Dublin. The event explored the close relationships, trade growth and new opportunities between Great Britain and Ireland. The panel discussion I was sitting on covered closer integration of GB and Ireland’s energy sector.
I was minded to reflect on SSE’s own origins and development, including the merger of Southern Electric and Scottish Hydro in 1998 and the acquisition of Airtricity in 2008. They provide plenty of the examples of the sorts of opportunities that closer integration has offered our business in both Great Britain and Ireland.
I was minded to reflect on SSE’s own origins and development, including the merger of Southern Electric and Scottish Hydro in 1998 and the acquisition of Airtricity in 2008. They provide plenty of the examples of the sorts of opportunities that closer integration has offered our business in both Great Britain and Ireland.
The three I spoke of:
- SSE has gone from strength to strength in delivering major new renewable generation projects since the integration of Airtricity. We commissioned over 500MW of new capacity last year alone.
- Market integration and harmonisation has given us the confidence to invest €500m in thermal generation assets operating in Ireland’s Single Electricity Market. We are the largest investor on Irish shores in the last five years, with over €1.7bn invested.
- Perhaps of most significance, SSE, a top 30 FTSE listed company, now speaks to its core markets as, Great Britain and Ireland.
The evidence would therefore suggest that further energy integration between the two countries can be a vehicle for growth, job creation and innovation. Politicians speaking at the Conference including Secretaries of State Vince Cable and Ed Davy and Irish Energy Minister Pat Rabbitte tended to agree with our experience.
The day concluded with the signing of a UK-Ireland Memorandum of Understanding which enables detailed analysis of how Irish renewable energy resources might be developed to the mutual benefit of Ireland and the United Kingdom. The subsequent stage would include the development of an inter-governmental agreement on renewable trade in 2014.
As I considered the day’s events and the contributions of other speakers a number of points come to mind:
- the potential of UK-Ireland energy cooperation appears promising, however, much near-term effort is needed to robustly evaluate the economics of exporting from Ireland to the UK;
- despite its abundance of renewable resources, around 50% of domestic heating in Ireland continues to be oil-fired. As highlighted by Sean O’Driscoll, Chairman and CEO of Glen Dimplex, GB is a potential new market for Irish renewables, but so too is the electrification of home heating. This could go a long way in increasing efficiency and reducing carbon emissions in that sector;
- the full economic value of renewables will best be realised by embedding the supply chain within Ireland and the UK and this will be a leading agent in securing future public support for renewables.
Finally, as the event closed and with significant goodwill evident among all participants, continued UK – Ireland energy partnerships is an opportunity to attract investment, share resources, encourage innovation and maximise the economic benefits created.