The all-time record for wind-generation was broken on January 11, with well over half of all electricity generated coming from renewable sources. On the morning of Wednesday, January 11 wind generation peaked at 2,815 megawatts (MW) on the island (at 7.15 am), breaking the previous record of 2,683 MW on January 28 last year. Robin McCormick, director of operations, planning and innvovation, at EirGrid said it was a real accomplishment for the grid operator. "We saw record levels of wind generation providing electricity across Ireland and managing this presented significant technical challenges for us.  Dealing with wind generation of this scale on a small, island electricity grid hasn't been done anywhere else in the world and so this is a huge achievement for EirGrid. “We've been working hard towards making this happen, analysing data and using all of our expertise to harness ever increasing amounts of wind.  We will continue to optimise the electricity system in the hope that we can continue this trend, which is ultimately about reducing the cost of electricity for the consumer," he said. Wind-generated electricity accounted for 60 per cent of electricity usage overnight and into early morning on the day the record was broken. Excess wind-generated electricity that could not be put on the transmission system was exported to Great Britain via interconnector links to Scotland and Wales. EirGrid Group is a world leader in the management wind-generated electricity. In response to binding national and European renewable energy targets, it began a multi-year programme to meet the challenges of operating the system while achieving the targets. The Delivering a Secure, Sustainable Electricity System programme is designed to ensure that it can securely operate the power system with increasing amounts of variable, renewable generation over the coming years.