Copyright 2003 Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.
Belfast Telegraph

December 5, 2003

LENGTH: 204 words

HEADLINE: Pause is called on wind farms linked to grid

BYLINE: By Diarmaid MacDermottnewsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

BODY:
THE Republic's electricity regulator has called a halt to wind farms
connecting to the national grid.

Regulator Tom Reeves said: "This is a pause rather than a permanent
decision.

"I got some of the guys from the ESB national grid over in the last ten days
or so.

"They recommended to me on technical grounds that it was time to maybe take
a break or pause because the amount of wind connected is beginning to be of
serious concern to them on safety and security terms.

"Wind has got certain technical characteristics of the windfarms which is
one issue which causes voltage and frequency issues for the grid operators.

"There is also the fact that the wind is intermittent and doesn't always
blow.

"If you have too much wind on a system it's difficult to control the wind
and the power input into the grid.

"At the moment there is, out of approximately 5,000 megawatts we have, about
170 of wind, but there are people who are entitled to connect with another
530 megawatts.

"That brings us up to 700 megawatts which the grid say is a critical number.

"It's time to take a look and see how we move forward from here," he added.

Northern Ireland has a smaller number of windfarms.



LOAD-DATE: December 5, 2003