400 jobs during construction of €500m battery and gas plant

(Above) An aerial view of Rochfortbridge.

Planning permission is being sought for a €500m energy project outside Rochfortbridge that will provide facilities to back up the national grid.

The proposed development by Offaly company Lumcloon Energy will comprise a 65MW battery storage facility and a 275MW FlexGen power plant, fuelled by natural gas.

The battery facility will store energy from the grid obtained at times of high wind generation and release it during high demand and periods of low renewable generation, while the natural gas generator will operate only at times of extreme or unanticipated pressure on supply and will draw gas (and eventually hydrogen) supplies from the natural gas pipeline a few kilometres to the north of the 50-acre site, which is just west of Rochfortbridge near the M6.

Up to 400 jobs will be created during construction, and 25 people will be employed on a permanent basis when the plant is operational; Lumcloon say there will be an additional 50 service-related indirect jobs.

The project will take between two and three years to complete, and a construction phase of 18-24 months.

Nigel Reams, CEO of Lumcloon Energy, said that its proposed Castlelost FlexGen Plant has “utterly no link” with Bord na Móna’s plans announced earlier this week for a dedicated renewable energy business park on 3,000 hectares close to the M6 at Rochfortbridge, or any other wind energy project in the locality.

“Our project will provide reserve facilities to back up the national electricity grid. It is designed to assist with security and reliability of electricity supply and help to control upward pressure on prices to homeowners and businesses,” Lumcloon Energy said in a statement.

“The plant will further assist stability of the electricity grid during any expansion of additional offshore wind energy development, as new onshore facilities are less likely in future,” Lumcloon said.

Lumcloon’s proposed development comes at a time when pressure for both an accelerated move to renewable energy and ensuring security of energy supply to meet rapidly growing demand are moving to top of national and government agendas.

Mr Reams said: “Predictable power is becoming increasingly important as we transition to high concentrations of intermittent renewables. This facility will enable efficient storage and reuse of energy through the main storage element of the plant, while delivering flexible back-up generation capability from the FlexGen.

“Natural gas and ultimately hydrogen fuelled generation capacity will act as a support facility for intermittent wind and solar generation, operating at times when renewable generation falls off suddenly. Its high-tech design means that, unlike traditional gas-based generation plants, it can be switched on and off at very short notice, as required.

“The overall project has been developed to support the climate action commitments in the Programme for Government and the major new climate change policy expected from government in the autumn,” he said.

Mr Reams added that “there is a very real risk that electricity demand will suddenly begin to outstrip supply in the immediate future, with unanticipated and unplanned power outages for consumers as a consequence”.

Irish owned and based in Tullamore, Lumcloon Energy already delivers 200MW of system services to support the electricity grid at its energy storage facilities near Cloghan and Shannonbridge in Offaly, which came on stream earlier this year.