New shareholders EirGrid and SONI

15 December 2017

Eirgrid and SONI, the two grid operators on the island of Ireland have joined and become a shareholder in Coreso, the coordinating body for regional security. They join their European counterparts from Belgium (Elia), France (RTE), the UK (National Grid), Italy (Terna), Germany (50Hertz), Portugal (REN) and Spain (REE).

The involvement of the Irish operators arises from the recommendation of the European Commission and the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) for the promotion of greater and increased coordination among European operators, with the support of a Regional Security Centre (RSC).

The CEO of Coreso, Jean-François Gahungu, explained: “EirGrid and SONI’s purchase of a stake in Coreso ensures geographical coherence of operational coordination in the Ireland-United Kingdom and Channel area. Now that Ireland is on board, Coreso can act as the RSC for the whole area. EirGrid and SONI’s involvement is an important milestone as it will enable an efficient approach to cooperation on services in the region, which started some time ago regarding capacity calculations.”

Fintan Slye, Chief Executive of EirGrid, said: “Joining Coreso will result in increased efficiency in system operation and minimises risks of wide area events, such as brownouts or blackouts. It will also reduce costs through maximised availability of transmission capacity to electricity generators.”

Robin McCormick, Director, Operations, Planning & Innovation and General Manager SONI, added: “Enhanced coordination among grid operators will also minimise the need for the costly re-dispatching of electricity generation, especially costly emergency actions.”

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