Renewables provided around 41% of electricity in November with new record for battery discharge on electricity system

Provisional data from EirGrid shows that around 41% of electricity came from renewable sources last month.¹

This compares with official metered data which shows that in November 2024 34% of electricity came from renewables. 

The majority of this renewable electricity came from wind with it accounting for 35% of all electricity used last month. Total generation of wind amounted to 1067GWh (Gigawatt hours).  Overall, renewables provided 41% of electricity when other sources including grid-scale solar² and hydropower are included.

Gas generation accounted for 42% of all electricity used in November and 17% was imported via interconnection. 

The overall electricity system demand³ stood at 3088 GWh for November, up from 2969 GWh in October. 

November also saw a new all-time demand peak recorded for a Sunday. Demand reached 5144 MW on Sunday 30 November, with the previous record for peak demand on a Sunday recorded in January 2025. 

A new record for Ireland’s transmission system was also set last month when battery discharge reached 362 MW at one point on Tuesday 25 November when demand was high and renewable generation from wind was low. 

This comes as EirGrid, SONI, and SEMO last month launched a major update, which now allows battery units, known as Energy Storage Power Stations (ESPS), to be fully integrated into the real-time electricity market. This change allows batteries to charge and discharge power more efficiently in the electricity market. 

EirGrid is responsible for balancing electricity supply and demand every minute of the day from the National Control Centre, while also strategically planning for Ireland’s long-term electricity needs. 

Diarmaid Gillespie, Director of System Operations at EirGrid, said: “As we would expect in November, with the clocks having changed, evenings getting shorter and the weather colder, we continued to see an increase in demand on the system last month.

“Notably we saw the highest demand for a Sunday since January of this year with batteries playing an ever increasing role in meeting peak demand on the power system.”

About the data

The data is based on 15-minute SCADA readings (MW). The data referenced above is Ireland-only.

Data is provisional and unmetered data, based on real-time information.

¹Average Fuel Mix is a representation of the System Generation fuel mix and net imports across the power system. The “Renewables” category includes wind, solar, hydro and biomass sources. It excludes some non-centrally monitored generation (e.g. small-scale combined heat and power and microgeneration).

² Not including rooftop (embedded) solar.

³ System demand represents the electricity production required to meet national electricity consumption, including system losses, but net of generators' requirements.