Electricity Autoproduction

Autoproduction of electricity is production of electricity for a consumer’s own use on a single premise. This arises where an electricity consumer has an onsite generator to provide a portion of their electricity needs.  This onsite generator is not operated as a backup generator at times of grid outage – rather it displaces imports from the grid on a day to day basis.

Microgeneration is a subset of autoproduction in that the size of installed generator is less than approximately 11kW. There is no upper limit to the definition of an autoproducer. The most common sources of generation technologies are as follows:

• Natural gas fuelled combined heat and power (CHP).
• Biomass CHP.
• Anaerobic digestion CHP.
• Small hydro.
• Wind.
• Solar photovoltaic.

There is potential for these generators to be called on by the electricity grid operator if needed via the Smart Grid.

Additional information available at:

SEAI primer on Autoproduction of electricity, Dec 2009

Intertrade Ireland report on microgeneration, Mar 2010

Micro Electricity Generation Association (MEGA) promoting the development and expansion of a world class state-of-the-art micro electricity generation industry in Ireland

SEAI guide to CHP in Ireland