Posted 23 May 2012
Minister pays tribute to Electricity Research Centre at UCD
The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Mr Pat Rabbitte TD delivered the opening address at the Research Symposium of the Electricity Research Centre (ERC) at University College Dublin.
Commending the work of the ERC, the Minister said: “The work that is done here is very relevant to the issues that Ireland’s electricity network experiences today.”
In particular, the Minister referred to an all island report conducted by the ERC in cooperation with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, which showed that as much as 42% of electricity could be delivered by intermittent renewable energy sources.
Pictured (l-r): Mark O’Malley, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of Electricity Research Centre, UCD; Mr Pat Rabbitte TD, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and Dr Hugh Brady,
President of UCD
The mission of the ERC is to overcome challenges related to energy provision and climate change, and to build human capacity in this crucial sector.
The industry-university research collaboration is based in Electrical Engineering at University College Dublin (UCD) with an Energy Economics branch at Trinity College Dublin (TCD).
It is governed by a board chaired by Mr Michael Tutty, Chair of the Commission for Energy Regulation, and made up of the industry members and representatives from the Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
Mark O’Malley, Professor of Electrical Engineering at UCD, is director of the ERC having founded the group in 1991.
The ERC is funded by Industry Members, an SFI Charles Parsons Energy Research Award, SFI Strategic Research Cluster, PRTLI-V and other sources, including SFI Principal Investigator, Stokes, and Research Frontiers Programmes, EU Intelligent Energy, IRCSET and Teagasc.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
