James Lawless
Question:36. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to examine an energy issue (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43899/23]
View answerTuesday, 10 October 2023
Questions (36)
Written answers
The Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process is managed by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) which also has responsibility for the regulation of the retail gas and electricity markets as assigned under the 1999 Electricity Regulation Act and subsequent legislation.
The primary objective of the SoLR process is to ensure that customers’ electricity and gas supply is not interrupted. Under the process, all customers of exiting suppliers are transferred to the?standard tariff of that gas or electricity supplier. The duration of the SoLR term is determined by a number of factors, including the volume of customers transferring, the requirement of the SoLR to purchase additional energy in the short-term on the wholesale market to provide for these additional customers and to allow adequate time to facilitate the registering of customers and issuing of bills. The SoLR term is approved by the CRU.
Any credit or debit that was built up between a customer and a supplier will?not?be passed on to the SoLR as unfortunately, the SoLR does not have access to the customer’s old supplier’s billing system and is therefore unable to quantify this.
The CRU is engaging in a review of the SOLR process, following the first, second and third ever SOLR events arising between June and October 2022. The CRU is accountable directly to the Oireachtas, and has a dedicated email address where Oireachtas members can contact them via oireachtas@cru.ie.