Ireland accelerates energy efficiency with new technologies

Global commitments, national ambitions

To tackle growing energy demand and its increasing environmental impact, the European Union adopted an energy efficiency directive in 2012 aimed at reducing energy use. This directive was updated in 2023 with more ambitious targets.

Additionally,  at the World Climate Action Summit of COP28 in December 2023, the EU launched the Global Pledge on Renewables and Energy Efficiency, committing to double the global rate of energy efficiency improvements - from about 2% to over 4% - by 2030.

Ireland is contributing to this pledge and working on reaching the EU’s energy efficiency goals. In fact, the country has even higher energy efficiency ambitions than others in the EU. Ireland’s goal is to reach net zero by 2050 and 80% of renewable electricity generation by 2030.

European cooperation drives local innovation

Cooperation projects supported by Interreg programmes are part of the energy efficiency solutions in Ireland. Two innovative initiatives demonstrate how new technologies are helping the country progress towards its ambitious energy efficiency targets. These examples show that energy efficiency can be accelerated with new technologies and that collaboration with European partners can spark more effective, forward-looking solutions.

Smart energy monitoring in social housing

Buildings consume around 40% of energy in the European Union. Improving buildings’ energy efficiency has a great potential for energy savings.

The Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage (DHLGH) in Ireland funds energy efficiency measures in social housing through the social housing energy efficiency retrofit programme. The programme aims to ensure that the social housing stock in Ireland has an energy rating of A3 or better (< 75kwhr/m2/yr) by 2050. A milestone of the programme is that 25% of the housing stock will achieve at least the A3 rating by 2030. 

From retrofitting to real-time insight

To support and enhance this national strategy at the regional level, the Southern Regional Assembly joined the Interreg Europe EMPOWER project which looked for carbon reduction solutions in public buildings through dynamic energy efficiency monitoring. Partners from nine European countries shared their best practices in employing new technologies in energy consumption monitoring and management.

The Southern Regional Assembly learned from the experiences of others and saw the need to assess how the retrofits performed in practice rather than relying solely on their rated or expected energy consumption. Thanks to the pilot experience in social housing in Almada, Portugal, which tested intelligent monitoring of energy consumption, the Assembly decided to focus on the outcomes of the social housing retrofit programme. They also chose a specific energy monitoring technology to be funded under the improved programme.

Good practices shared by the French project partner - Saint-Sulpice Smart City and Raspberry Pi Electricity Monitoring and Free Software Data Collection - provided the knowledge on wireless technology to obtain quality data that can be easily analysed. The French experiences also gave the Irish partner useful guidance for commissioning the new energy monitoring equipment.

Cork City’s deep retrofits and tenant empowerment

In 2021, a smart energy monitoring equipment was funded under the improved social housing retrofit scheme. Cork City Council received EUR 90,534 to pay for the energy monitoring equipment which was installed in eight social housing units in Noonan Road.

Over half of Cork City Council’s social houses were built before 1970, with some dating as far back as 1886. The new funding scheme enabled Cork City Council to pair deep energy retrofits and smart energy technologies, significantly improving living conditions for tenants while also advancing national energy efficiency goals. The sophisticated energy counters provided tenants with clear, real-time insights into their energy use, encouraging more conscious and efficient energy consumption.

Monitoring systems and measurable impact

The smart energy efficiency measuring, monitoring, and reporting (EEMMR) systems provide information not only to tenants but also to the Cork City Council’s housing department. The data help the department better understand the impact of retrofitting activities. Insights into energy consumption, carbon emissions, indoor temperatures, and other key indicators also support the design of predictive maintenance plans to maintain optimal building performance. The systems incorporate various sensors, data loggers, communication devices and digital platforms for remote data storage and display. They track key performance indicators before and after retrofitting such as the temperature, CO2 levels, heat pump usage, and energy and gas consumption. External environmental indicators - such as external temperature, air pressure, rainfall, solar radiation, or wind speed and wind direction - are also measured.

By introducing dynamic energy monitoring of the retrofitted units, Cork City became the first in Ireland to implement a mechanism capable to precisely measure energy savings before and after the deep retrofits in social housing. Tenants also gained access to information enabling them to adjust their real energy consumption habits and achieve further savings.

Smart storage for renewable energy autonomy

Apart from saving energy in public buildings, Ireland also focuses on generating renewable energy for its own use. In Donegal County, for example, many public buildings produce solar energy. However, due to a lack of energy storage they are forced to sell excess power to the grid at low prices and later repurchase it at higher rates. The county also lacks a central system to efficiently manage energy flows in real time, which would allow it to make full use of its own renewable energy.

To address this, Donegal County Council joined the COPOWER project, co-funded by the Interreg Northern Periphery and Arctic programme. Working together with partners from Finland, Iceland, and Faroe Islands, the Irish wanted to find out how to best integrate a battery storage and smart energy management in public buildings and optimise the renewable energy use, reduce costs, and ease strain on the national grid.

Ireland doesn’t have a scalable, decentralised energy solution for community-driven renewable energy management. The COPOWER project is filling this gap by introducing a virtual power plant model, which allows multiple distributed energy resources (DERs) to be connected and managed efficiently. The model provides the tools, technology, and framework to integrate battery storage with smart energy modelling and real-time energy management. It will also include modelling based on predictive analysis using weather forecasts, pricing, and energy flows to understand the behaviour of the distributed energy resources and optimise their energy usage and efficiency.

Donegal pilots a virtual power plant

Donegal County Council decided to test the virtual power plant model in a pilot project. It is testing the integration of battery storage and solar energy across four public buildings in Lifford. Three of those buildings have solar installations but operate independently from each other. The pilot will test a single point of control over all the installations. This model should enable the council to reduce or shift energy usage during peak times in response to time-based rates, energy demand at any of the sites or a shutdown by the grid. Additionally, it will enable Donegal to store energy when it is cheapest and use it during peak times, leading to a 40% reduction in costs, lower emissions, and greater energy resilience for the community.

Donegal County Council expects the COPOWER project to demonstrate the benefits of the virtual power plant through the proof-of-concept pilot. The potential lies in the fact that any distributed energy resource (DER) can be added to the virtual power plant, thus extending the use of renewable energy and the capacity of the virtual power plant.

Energy islands for local resilience

Donegal County Council’s pilot is designed to operate in so-called 'island mode'. It means that it can supply power independently during an outage. Solar panels could also continue charging batteries when disconnected from the grid. Studies suggest that distributed energy systems can cut outage duration by up to 50%, improving local resilience. In Donegal, a virtual power plant could keep emergency centres and public buildings running during storms, reducing the impact of power disruptions.

The recent storms and blackouts highlight the vulnerability of centralised energy systems to extreme weather. A community virtual power plant with battery storage could reduce power outages by providing stored energy when the grid fails. On top of that, this smart technology can reduce costs, lower emissions, and increase the use of renewable energy sources on the spot of their production.