Sustainability

In 2023, gas generated 47% of Ireland’s electricity, a 1% decrease from 2022. Wind’s share of electricity generation increased from 34% in 2022 to 39% in 2023, and coal’s generation fell from 9% in 2022 to 4% in 2023. At their peak, gas and wind powered up to 89% and 80% of Ireland’s electricity needs respectively. The intermittent nature of wind saw it drop lower than 1% at times. As the level of renewables increases on the electricity network, the gas network will provide resilience and security of supply in an integrated energy system.

In September, we published the Biomethane Energy Report, a comprehensive report detailing the key findings from a national Request for Information process targeting current and prospective biomethane producers. The responses have been used to assess the future infrastructure requirements for biomethane integration into Ireland’s gas network and help facilitate the most efficient delivery of biomethane to our customers and the most economic connections to the gas network for producers.

The report’s findings confirmed a strong appetite amongst prospective biomethane producers in Ireland, with aggregate production totalling 26% of current gas consumption, which could enter the gas network by 2030. In terms of production volumes, the response received of 14.8 TWh is more than two and a half times that of Ireland’s stated 2030 biomethane ambition of 5.7 TWh.

The Government’s National Hydrogen Strategy, published in July, acknowledged the crucial role that Ireland’s €2.8bn gas network will play in Ireland’s future renewable hydrogen evolution. This includes how the gas network will be leveraged to accommodate hydrogen produced from wind energy, as well as recognising that in the interim, natural gas will continue to be needed to ensure continued security and resilience of Ireland’s energy supply.

At our Network Innovation Centre in Citywest, our research into understanding the full potential of hydrogen continued. In November, our HyEnd report was published. This latest research found that 90% of equipment powered across industries and large businesses in Ireland is already capable of using up to 20% of hydrogen, when blended with natural gas.

Together with Virginia Internal Logistics we took another step forward in reducing emissions from Ireland’s transport industry – with the opening of Ireland’s eighth Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) refuelling station by Minister for Social Protection and Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD.

Efficiently incurred capital investment of €148m in critical gas infrastructure was delivered in 2023. In line with our counterparts across Europe, our focus is on transitioning our gas supply to renewable technologies such as biomethane and hydrogen.

A total of 19 large industrial meters, 352 small-to-medium-enterprises, 6 apartment blocks and 1,989 homes contracted to be connected to the gas network in 2023. The associated offtake for this customer base is shown below:

• 2,262.3 GWh - 19 large industrial meters
• 38.1 GWh - 352 commercial businesses
• 21.8 GWh – 1,820 mature homes
• 1.7 GWh – 169 new homes
• 5.7 GWh – 6 new apartment blocks

Our excellence in customer care and in our customer service programme continued to be recognised, as we were awarded Best Customer Experience in Public, Voluntary & Non-Profit Sector CCMA award, Best Customer Experience for Utilities/Telecom CE Award and Best Customer Experience Impact in Government and Public Sector at the CXIA awards. Our Customer Care Manager Bernard Mooney was also awarded the Customer Experience Leader 2023. We continued to maintain and enhance our customer journeys which saw our overall Customer Satisfaction Score remain at an excellent 93%.

Aurora Telecom specialises in dark fibre and colocation services for telecommunications carriers, corporate organisations, and government services. In 2023, in addition to extending its national network footprint, Aurora Telecom enhanced its international standing by strengthening its secure, resilient, dual-feed connectivity to additional subsea cable networks, specifically the international subsea backhaul connection for the IRIS subsea cable. Aurora Telecom is the only provider to interconnect with this new high-speed undersea cable system, which spans approximately 1,700 km in length and connects Iceland to Ballyloughane Strand in Galway.

We responded to 14,856 suspected gas escapes, carbon monoxide issues, and incidents within an average of 27 minutes.

In June we were announced as winners of the Overall Operational Excellence Award which acknowledges individuals, teams and organisations dedicated to achieving operational excellence and driving business transformation.

Last year, more than 160 of our employees volunteered to facilitate and deliver over 70 local community initiatives including STEAM education programmes - ‘Energize’, which encourages sixth class pupils to continue science subjects in second level education, ‘Time to Count’ – a numeracy support primary school programme, and the ‘World of Work’ education and career support secondary school programme; as well as gardening for the elderly with our charity partner Age Action Ireland, biodiversity projects and fundraising initiatives. We delivered 54,008 social impact hours and were accepted as applicants for the “Investing in Volunteers Certification” - the national quality standard for best practice in volunteer management.