Electricity network in Cork county at higher risk of power cuts

Cork’s electricity network, excluding the city, is at increased exposure that can lead to unplanned power outages because it is comprised primarily of overhead infrastructure, a spokesperson for ESB Networks has said in response to a query from The Echo.

According to Aoiffe Llewellyn of ESB Networks, the utility invested €5.3bn to refurbish the national electricity network and, in 2024 alone, the investment in electricity networks across the island was €1.4bn.

“More than €1.15m was invested in 2024 in the Cork, Fermoy, and Dunmanway planner groups, as part of our network upgrade, refurbishment, and automation programmes. In 2025, we plan to invest €6.4m in the same planner groups. 

"To facilitate this investment in the network in Cork, there has been a significant increase in planned outages during 2024. This level of planned outages continues in the first half of 2025 but will begin to steadily decrease as projects are completed," said Ms Llewellyn.

“As a result of this significant investment, we are seeing a decrease in fault outages across all three planner groups as they all finished ahead of the CRU targets for interruptions last year, and up to the end of Q1 were all ahead of target for this year.”

Disclosure

The spokesperson was speaking to The Echo following a disclosure last week on foot of a Freedom of Information request by Ireland South Fianna Fáil MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, in which it was revealed that there had been increases in unplanned power cuts in the Fermoy, Bandon, and Dunmanway planner groups during 2024.

In Fermoy, the number of unplanned power outages had increased by 21% between 2023, when there were 1,375 electricity supply failures, and 2024 when power outages numbered 1,662.

There was also an increase of 8% in outages in the Bandon planner group in 2024 over the 2023 figure, while a 3.6% uptick was recorded in Dunmanway. In Cork city, on the other hand, there was a reduction in the number of power cuts between 2024 and 2023.

In her statement, the MEP expressed concern that ESB Networks might have been trying to cut costs by “not investing in our electricity infrastructure to the extent that they should be”.

“Power cuts have an enormous impact, as many homes are now passive homes that depend on heat pumps and don’t have open fires or stoves,” she said, calling on ESB Networks to explain the cause of what she termed the “dramatic increase in the number of power outages”.