Could Northern Ireland be in control of its energy future? 

Could it set its energy prices for the next hundred years?

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Northern Ireland has been vulnerable to significant price shocks from the international gas and oil markets. However, could we develop a future that means we lose that dependency and can determine our price for electricity and heating?   

It sounds like something from a science fiction movie, but it is a current technical reality that Northern Ireland could make its energy and set its own prices. 

Over the last thirty years, we have developed, constructed, and invested billions in a gas network that can heat half the properties and businesses in Northern Ireland and an indigenous wind and solar industry that generates more and more of our daily electricity requirements. 

Recent research from the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy (CASE) at Queen’s University Belfast has shown that this investment enables Northern Ireland the ability to become energy self-sufficient. 

Simply put, energy is about two issues: how to heat your homes and how to power them.

Currently, most households in Northern Ireland use natural gas or heating oil to heat their homes—fuels that are dependent on global international markets to set their prices. 

In addition, international wholesale gas prices also set the cost of our local electricity, as most of our electricity is generated using gas-fired power stations. 

However, we can change this status quo. Northern Ireland can produce its own gas, which could be used to power and heat our economy.

NET-ZERO TARGETS

Northern Ireland is an agricultural-based economy. This sector produces waste (sewerage, sludge, manure, and other organic matter), which can be turned into methane or biogas, that can be used in our gas network and power stations to heat and power our homes and help us achieve its net-zero targets. 

Denmark is a global leader in biogas and aims to use 100 per cent biomethane by 2035. Could Northern Ireland, with a similar agricultural background, replicate this? 

Could we develop a renewable energy source that can replace natural gas and help us achieve our net-zero targets?

It may sound like alchemy that we can turn our agricultural waste and remove pollution problems like Lough Neagh and Belfast Lough into valuable energy production and disconnect ourselves from international energy prices. However, this could become a game changer and give Northern Ireland a future economic advantage. 

In other words, a potential £500 million to £700 million is required to deliver a biogas energy infrastructure that can rapidly move Northern Ireland towards energy self-sufficiency and break our energy prices, which are wholly linked to world energy prices. 

Producing biogas is not rocket science. The European Union plans to support biogas production in other countries by providing grants and loans, funding innovation, and encouraging member states to adopt national strategies. 

Could Northern Ireland do something similar by using all-island funding or GB Energy to support its development?

A national plan for Northern Ireland combined with a mutualised local biogas company, which local consumers own, will help drive the building of biogas refineries here. A network of logistics that transports our various biowaste from farms, agricultural manufacturers, homes, etc., would need to be created, providing hundreds of jobs to our rural economy. 

BELOW INTERNATIONAL PRICE

The central focus of this local biogas company would be to create biogas below the average price of international wholesale natural gas.

Government policy and legislation, as well as regulatory support from the Utility Regulator, would be needed to create a mutualised company that would develop biogas facilities, infrastructure, and logistics to inject biogas into our current gas network and manage the sale of biogas to our current gas suppliers. 

The cost of decarbonising our agricultural sector cannot be dismissed. Government support (locally, all-island or from the UK via GB Energy) will be needed. In addition, some could come from the circa £15 million that Mutual Energy (the state-controlled company that operates our high-pressure gas network assets) releases yearly. A further £40 million could come from our other gas companies if they were mutualised and owned by local consumers (something which is possibly overdue). This could generate circa £50 million to £70 million of investment annually. 

In other words, a potential £500 million to £700 million is required to deliver a biogas energy infrastructure that can rapidly move Northern Ireland towards energy self-sufficiency and break our energy prices, which are wholly linked to world energy prices. 

No one underestimates the difficulties involved, but the size of the prize to Northern Ireland is enormous, as few countries/regions will ever become 100 per cent self-sufficient for their energy needs.

MAN WITH GAS PLAN: Peter Dixon
2Gallery

MAN WITH GAS PLAN: Peter Dixon

This opportunity comes around once in a generation, and Northern Ireland needs to grasp it with both hands. Let us consider bringing together our best business and academic brains and policy and regulatory experts to develop an implementation plan. This will enable us to grasp the opportunity biogas presents or set it aside as a pipedream. 

It is time for joined-up triangular thinking—let’s fix our agricultural challenges, energy price challenges, and energy self-sufficiency goals through our efforts.

The prize is economic prosperity that can transform Northern Ireland and ensure stable energy prices for the foreseeable future. 

Peter Dixon began his career at 16 as a gas engineer at the Gas Corporation in Liverpool. Initially fast-tracked through the British Gas hierarchy to lead key strategic projects in the early 1990s, he joined Phoenix in February 1997 during its fledging phase. The development of the gas industry in Northern Ireland during Dixon’s term is recognised as one of the most successful greenfield projects of its generation. He was appointed to the Phoenix board and served as Group CEO until 2014. More recently, he served as Group Chairman from 2014 until April 2024, when he stepped down from this role.