Energy Security in Ireland to 2030
- Published on: 14 November 2023
- Last updated on: 12 June 2025
Energy Security in Ireland to 2030 outlines a new strategy to ensure energy security in Ireland for this decade, while ensuring a sustainable transition to a carbon neutral energy system by 2050. This report is being published as part of an Energy Security Package, containing a range of supplementary analyses, consultations, and reviews, which have informed the recommendations and actions related to energy security.
Informed by the government's energy security policy objectives - to ensure energy is affordable, sustainable, and secure - the review considered the risks to oil, natural gas, and electricity. The report sets out that Ireland’s future energy will be secure by moving from an oil- and gas-based energy system to an electricity-led system, maximising our renewable energy potential, flexibility and being integrated into Europe's energy systems. Meeting our climate, renewable, and energy efficiency targets through actions and measures set out in the annually updated Climate Action Plan will deliver this secure energy future.
As we transition, the Energy Security Package states that we must ensure energy security is prioritised, monitored, and reviewed regularly, and includes a range of measures to implement this approach in the short and medium term by prioritising:
- Reduced and Responsive Demand
- A Renewables-Led System
- More Resilient Systems
- Robust Risk Governance
Under each of these four areas of actions, the report sets out a range of mitigation measures, including the need for additional capacity of indigenous renewable energy, but also energy imports, energy storage, fuel diversification, demand side response, and renewable gases. The governance structures supporting the energy system, including oversight and accountability reforms, were also examined.
This energy security package sets out a strategic approach to ensure a secure transition for Ireland’s energy systems in line with its climate objectives. It considers lessons, in particular, from the disruption to European energy supplies following the invasion of Ukraine and the domestic capacity shortfall experienced in the electricity sector. Six key pillars of analysis underpin the overall response and recommendations which are presented in Energy Security in Ireland to 2030, including a public consultation, and a range of external reviews and analyses which are published alongside the Energy Security Package below.
A follow-up to the Energy Security Package will be published in 2030, and every 5 years thereafter, with implementation monitored by the government's Energy Security Group.
On 4 March 2025, the Government approved Action 17 of the Energy Security Package, the development of a State-led strategic gas emergency reserve. The delivery of a temporary gas reserve is critical to Ireland’s energy security as we continue to transition to indigenous, clean renewable energy.
As part of Action 17 Gas Networks Ireland was asked to review and recommend the best way to deliver this strategic gas emergency reserve. These preliminary business cases, now published in Annex 7, look at five key areas: strategic, economic, commercial, financial, and management considerations. In these preliminary business cases, Gas Networks Ireland conclude that a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU), as a transitional measure, is the optimal solution to meet the N-1 energy infrastructure standard.
To further support the work under Action 17, the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment also commissioned an updated report from Cambridge Economics (CEPA). This analysis, now published in Annex 4C, looks at Ireland’s energy needs into the 2030s, using updated modelling of both the gas and electricity systems. The report finds that Ireland would not meet the N-1 standard in the 2030s without additional action. This additional analysis confirmed the findings of the original CEPA report and supports the requirement for a strategic gas emergency reserve to secure Ireland’s energy systems into the next decade.
Together, these publications support the development of a strategic gas emergency reserve as an interim measure to support Ireland’s energy systems as we continue to transition to indigenous, clean renewable energy.
