Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 November 2023
93. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if any analysis has been carried out on how much solar generated electricity may go to waste in Ireland on an annual basis due to a failure to make it available to the national grid; how much solar generated electricity was fed into the grid in 2022 and 2023 respectively without payment to the producer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50382/23]
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 to me as Minister. In December 2021, CRU published a Decision on an interim enabling framework for the Clean Export Guarantee (CEG), enabling payments to micro-generators for electricity exported to the grid, which outlines the arrangements for its implementation, including eligibility criteria and remuneration methodology. As export payments under the CEG are managed by each supplier company, there is no single register which records the amount of solar electricity which was fed into the grid by micro-generators with or without payment in 2022 and 2023. More information is available in the CRU’s decision paper: www.cru.ie/publications/27028/ For safety purposes, all microgeneration systems must be registered with ESB Networks, using the NC6 inform and fit notification process. To maintain balance and prevent strain on the low voltage distribution grid, ESBN has set limits based on the size of the inverter through which the PV panels transport their generation. These limits require that the peak export from inverters should not exceed 25A (approx. 6kVA) for single-phase connections or 16A/phase (approx. 11kVA) for three-phase connections. While export limits are in place to protect the grid, households can install larger systems through the NC7 mini-generation process or adopt solutions to maximise self-consumption of solar PV generated electricity. Using simple technologies such as a hot water diverter, any ‘excess’ electricity can be used to heat water in your home and push self-consumption closer towards 100%. For larger installations, battery storage systems may provide an appropriate solution for maximising renewable self-consumption. At a transmission system level, Eirgrid monitors the levels of ‘dispatch-down’ of larger renewable energy generators. This refers to renewable energy which cannot be used due to power system limitations, known as curtailments, or local network limitations, known as constraints. In this instance, my Department has forwarded the relevant query raised in the question to Eirgrid for their attention and direct reply to the Deputy.
