Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 February 2009
79 Deputy Simon Coveney asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the progress made on the roll-out of net meters here; the timescale for the availability of feed-in tariffs for micro-generation units selling electricity back to the grid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4857/09]
View answerAs well as providing valuable information for both the consumer and electricity supplier, net metering allows micro-scale renewable energy projects in domestic settings to export electricity to the grid. The typical electricity meter installed by the ESB in the past will not operate in reverse and cannot therefore support a net metering programme. The smart metering programme will resolve this barrier in time. However, I am examining alternative ways of integrating micro-scale renewable energy systems into the electricity grid as soon as possible.
An alternative approach is to provide a guaranteed price for electricity exported to the grid from micro-scale projects. The renewable energy feed-in tariff, REFIT, support scheme operated by my Department provides a fixed price to electricity producers. However, it also relies on electricity suppliers' voluntarily contracting with electricity producers to purchase the power produced. Suppliers have demonstrated in the past that their interest is in purchasing power from large-scale projects producing electricity in commercial quantities only. Micro-scale plants are of a much smaller size and require a different solution outside the REFIT programme.
My Department is currently working closely with the Commission for Energy Regulation and other stakeholders to put in place in the short term an appropriately structured payment system for micro-generated electricity exported to the grid, which will operate separately from the REFIT mechanism. In addition, Sustainable Energy Ireland is proposing a micro-generation pilot programme under which research and field trials will be conducted, including support for between 50 and 60 installations of micro-scale projects on a pilot basis. The field trials will address a range of issues, including grid connection and technical standards, to ensure the power security, safety and quality of installations. CER and ESB Networks have amended the rules associated with connecting micro-scale plants so that generators of less than 6 kW on single-phase cables and 11 kW on three-phase electricity supply cables can now connect to the grid without prior authorisation.
Following these changes, SEI has arranged to publish a guide to connecting renewable and combined heat and power electricity production plants to the electricity network, including advice for micro-generators, which will be of assistance to those connecting micro-scale plant to the network. In addition, revised planning guidelines from my colleague the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government establish an exemption from planning consent requirements for micro-scale projects of suitable height. Work is now concluding on the design of the programmes referred to and I expect to make an announcement on the detailed arrangements for micro-scale projects in the coming weeks.
I suspect I agree with the Minister when I say that micro-generation and the decentralisation of energy generation generally is a significant opportunity for job creation. The key element of this is the export tariff that people can get by supplying power from micro-generators back to the electricity grid. My understanding at the moment is that the proposition from the ESB is to pay 9 cent per kilowatt hour. This does not compare favourably to what is on offer in other parts of Europe. That is about as charitable as I can be. In France, the equivalent figure is 45 cent per kilowatt hour. We are a long way from agreement on the right tariff. Will the Minister give his view on whether the recent ESB proposed tariff is appropriate?
Second, the Minister is true to form with regard to net metering. In November 2007, he announced that 25,000 homes would have net meters installed in a pilot project, while in September 2008 he said it would be 21,000 customers. To date, how many smart meters have been installed and are functioning in homes? Am I correct that under the timeframe the Minister has set we will have to wait until February 2011 to get some feedback on the findings of the pilot project in net metering?
I agree with the Deputy. The 9 cent per kilowatt hour is there as an instrument to break the logjam that has existed for years whereby nobody would or could purchase the power. Part of the measures we want to put in an interim package is that there would be a further price support measure which would complement that to provide an incentive. It is just an interim measure. We have also commissioned very detailed analysis of each of the small micro generation sectors to consider the more long-term, sustainable approach to encourage the development of this generation system. The price we will put in will be an interim measure. It will provide a more significant price support than the 9 cent referred to but it is, in itself, only an interim measure.
We can examine Spain, Germany, France and the countries the Deputy mentioned to consider their experience. What one does not wish to do, which has happened in some of those countries, is set a very high price and then undermine the market by having to claw that back or bring it down. We must set an appropriate price that allows people, particularly dairy farmers, businesses and farms, to erect the windmills or other devices that would work very effectively in the Irish landscape and weather and give them an ability to sell on. That price is only a fraction of what I believe the proper support price should and will be.
Regarding net metering, I will refer back to the Deputy on the exact number of meters delivered to date, but we are on target for installing the 21,000 meters so we can test how householders use the meter and how it works. That is the right way to do this. People can criticise and say we should have installed 500,000 by now but my experience with a range of different projects in which we have engaged is that one first tests the item in the real world. It is not a small test; a total of 21,000 houses is a significant sample of the population. That will provide the figures and analysis that will allow us to deploy it across the country, which I am confident we will do.
I am confident that we are ahead of other countries. Members of the Opposition are critical that we are not further advanced but we are ahead of most other jurisdictions. Crucially, we are ahead in terms of learning from the mistakes. Other countries have installed smart meters but the meters were not necessarily as smart as they would have liked two or three years later. It is appropriate for us to get it right, and that is what we are doing.
My understanding, and the Minister can correct me if it is wrong, is that only 250 of the 21,000 have so far been installed. While I am anxious to support the roll-out of smart meters, as are many other people because it leads to other technologies, the problem is that we are utterly frustrated by how long each stage is taking before smart meters will be commercial after the pilot project phase. It will be 2012 or 2013 at the earliest.
In conjunction with the roll-out of micro-generation here, we will provide access to 4,000 of the smart meters we have available to farmers, small businesses or householders who might wish to generate their own power supply and sell it back to the grid. We will provide that on a basis that it gets rid of that as a block to the development of micro-generation. We are using the smart meters which are available to us and which we can deploy in a way that kills two birds with one stone — it develops a new power supply system whereby people can supply power to the grid and provides lessons that we can then apply to the rest of the country.
