Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 September 2021
85. Deputy Seán Canney asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications his plans to incentivise microgeneration; if he will put a feed-in tariff in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44677/21]
View answer124. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications when the microgeneration support scheme will be rolled out (details supplied). [45242/21]
View answer125. Deputy Pat Buckley asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if his attention has been drawn to the fact that tariffs (details supplied) are not available yet in Ireland; when the tariffs will be made available to customers in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45277/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 85, 124 and 125 together.
My Department outlined proposals for a new Micro-generation Support Scheme (MSS) in a public consultation that closed in February last. A summary report of the submissions received has been published on my Department's website.
While the primary aim of a microgeneration scheme is to enable a household to meet its own electricity needs, it is intended that a suitable tariff for excess electricity generated on site and exported to the grid will be available to all renewables self-consumers later this year, subject to regulatory arrangements, in line with the transposition of Articles 21 and 22 of the recast Renewable Energy Directive (RED II).
It is expected the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) will publish a draft framework in the coming weeks outlining the details, including eligibility criteria and timescales for introduction, of the Clean Export Guarantee tariff for exported renewable electricity. This framework will introduce an obligation on electricity suppliers to offer remuneration to their customers, by way of a Clean Export Guarantee payment, for excess renewable electricity exported to the grid by eligible micro- and small-scale generators. The CRU consultation will last four weeks, with a decision expected to be published in November.
The legal basis for the enabling framework is dependent on the transposition of the relevant articles of RED II and Directive (EU) 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity (IMED), which establish the renewables self-consumer model of electricity generation. My Department is engaging with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel on transposing these Articles into Irish law. It is envisaged that this will be achieved before year end.
Further to the public consultation mentioned above, my Department is developing a final scheme design for the MSS that incorporates the feedback from the consultation and subsequent additional analysis. It is envisaged that a proposal on the supports to be offered to citizens, farms, schools and businesses under the MSS, which may include grants or premium tariff payments for new installations, will be submitted to Government later this year.
