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Renewable Energy
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Page 2 of 7
The All-Island Market for Electricity (AIME) which came into operation on November 1 should provide operators with the financial incentive to install some peaking plants. The new market works by giving the big generating companies, North and South, the choice of whether they want to be a price maker or a price taker. If a firm opts for the price making role, it tells the grid operator each day the price and quantity of the electricity it can supply for each half-hourly period in the following 24 hours. The grid operator then orders power from the cheapest suppliers to cover the expected demand, with each supplier being paid the price demanded by the most expensive operator chosen.
Price takers, on the other hand, just tell the grid operator how much power they will have available and get whatever price for each half-hourly period the price-makers are being paid. Small producers – those under 10MW – don't have to participate in this market directly if they choose not to do so. They can simply contract to sell their power to a company that is involved.
Surplus gas had to be burnt off at the Ballytobin Camphill Community for six years before permission was granted to use it to power a generator
Because the demand for power can double over the course of a day, from the night-time trough to the early-evening peak, (See Illustration 1) the price at which the power supply companies buy their electricity from the AIME pool can triple within the space of a few hours as Illustration 2 shows. It would be during the high-price periods that the “peaking” power units would come on line.
Illustration 1
Illustration 2
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