Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 April 2023
95. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the progress made to date in upgrading the Irish electricity transmission system to carry the proposed wind energy output, onshore and offshore, due to come on stream by 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19772/23]
View answerResponsibility for the regulation of the electricity market is a matter for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) which is an independent regulator, accountable to a committee of the Oireachtas, and not me as Minister. The CRU was assigned responsibility for the regulation of the Irish electricity sector following the enactment of the Electricity Regulation Act, 1999 and subsequent legislation.
The CRU is responsible for, inter alia, the economic regulation of the electricity system operators ESB Networks, for distribution, and EirGrid, for transmission. The cost of building, safely operating and maintaining the electricity system is recovered by system operators through charges on customers, all of which is overseen and agreed with the CRU. System operator spending is agreed with the CRU in five year cycles, referred to as Price Reviews.
EirGrid is currently updating its Shaping our Electricity Future as a roadmap for the transmission grid out to 2030 necessary to deliver the renewable electricity target. Separately, EirGrid also publishes annually a 10 year Transmission Development Plan, which presents EirGrid’s view of the future electricity transmission network needs. All of this is done under the supervision of the independent regulator, CRU.
EirGrid is independent of the Minister in the exercise of its functions as Transmission System Operator. The matters raised in this question are operational matters for both Eirgrid, in the first instance, and the CRU and therefore not a matter in which I have function.
