30 years of Energy Ireland

Owen McQuade looks back on 30 years of the Energy Ireland conference, which has become one of the most important events in the Irish energy sector.

June 2026 marked the 30th annual Energy Ireland conference. The inaugural conference was held in 1997, featuring 100 speakers and delegates in the Burlington Hotel, and it has grown to become the biggest energy conference in the country, with 400 senior leaders from across the sector gathering in Croke Park every year.

From the start, we set out to bring the senior decision-makers together every June to reflect on the year past, the ongoing challenges, and to look to the future of the Irish energy sector.

The sector and the conference have always been shaped by the external environment. In the 30 years, we have seen a series of disruptive events such as the 2008 financial crash, the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the growing climate crisis, and now the war in Iran.

As is fit for an event at Croke Park, Energy Ireland is and has always been an all-Ireland conference, starting the year before the Good Friday Agreement. One all-island development worth highlighting is the success of the SEM (Single Electricity Market).

Over the years, Energy Ireland has run nine focused events of the SEM, and we have always covered it in the conference programme. One figure comes to mind; in the change from the SEM to the I-SEM (Integrated Single Electricity Market) in 2019, capacity payments reduced from €550 million to €360 million. That is a huge saving for the citizens of this small island.

Support through the years

Looking back over the 30 years, the Energy Ireland team and I would like to acknowledge those who have supported the conference. We have enjoyed working with those who have chaired the conference including Owen Lewis, David Taylor, Úna Nic Giolla Choille, Neil Walker, and Tanya Harrington.

We have always appreciated our sponsors and I thank ESB’s Padraig McManus who took the first advert in the Energy Ireland Yearbook and sponsored the conference from the beginning. SEAI has been a great partner and has helped shift a bias in the sector from the supply side of energy to often focus on the demand side. We also thank Arthur Cox’s Patrick McGovern who sponsored lunch on day one of the conference, which has been continued by Alex McLean and now Niamh McGovern.

Bord Gáis Éireann, now Bord Gáis Energy, and Gas Networks Ireland have supported the conference from the early days. From 2007, Gerry Walsh, who had then recently retired as Bord Gáis Éireann CEO, chaired the conference for several years.

We thank the industry leaders whose insights shape our conferences, including ESB’s Peter O’Shea who is usually the first person I talk to when developing the programme. Other notable thought leaders include Pádraig Flemin, for his insights on gas and Dave Kirwan who gave a standout presentation in 2021 when he looked back on 25 years of Energy Ireland.

We have always had a minister open the conference and we never take that for granted. Indeed, at the 2026 event we had two ministers: Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment (DCEE) Darragh O’Brien TD and Minister for the Economy Caoimhe Archibald MLA. I thank DCEE for its support and would like to acknowledge Assistant Secretary Matt Collins who worked with us at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to deliver an online seminar on offshore wind energy.

When reviewing 30 years of Energy Ireland, I was struck by the evolving role of women in the energy sector. In the first programme in 1997, there were four female speakers and a similar number of female delegates. In 2026, 16 women participated in the conference as speakers, chairs, or in panel discussions. The increasing number of women speaking at our conferences reflects the changing landscape of the energy sector. However, there is still some way to go despite the progress made.

If I had to thank everyone who has made Energy Ireland a success, we would run out of pages in the magazine, so I thank everyone who has participated, whether you are a speaker, sponsor, or delegate, over the last three decades.

This sector makes significant strides that are not always recognised. For example, we run the National Retrofitting Conference in partnership with SEAI each autumn. At the 2025 conference, we berated ourselves over the lack of progress towards the target of 500,000 retrofits by 2030. This was despite the delivery of over 240,000 energy retrofits to this point. This is a great achievement, particularly when compared with other jurisdictions.

While we still have much to achieve in terms of decarbonisation, security of supply, and affordability, we should acknowledge the progress the sector has made over the last 30 years, and I hope that the Energy Ireland conference has played a role is helping us achieve that progress.

Owen McQuade is Managing Editor of eolas Magazine and has been organising the Energy Ireland conference since its foundation in 1997.