Vol. 577 No. 4
65 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he envisages a role in the introduction of a strategy that will help average the electrical demand profile in view of the ?4 billion on the grid upgrades and reinforcements; and his views on whether there is a benefit from introducing a customer energy efficiency levy as is practised by Northern Ireland Electricity. [31389/03]
The question of demand side management for electricity is one for the industry but is encouraged and facilitated by the Commission for Energy Regulation, CER. CER has recently approved a new demand side management scheme that will be in place in time for this winter's peak demand periods. ESB national grid will operate this scheme which aims to secure a reduction in this winter's peak demand of about 120 MW. All customers currently open to competition and who have the appropriate metering will be able to participate in this scheme. This new demand side management arrangement will be running in parallel with the existing ESB winter peak demand scheme.
The CER is also developing new wholesale trading arrangements that are expected to be operational in early 2006. The new trading arrangement will allow for demand side participation which will incentivise customers to reduce demand in response to changing electricity prices. I understand that the customer energy efficiency levy in place in Northern Ireland is used to fund energy efficiency programmes.
Sustainable Energy Ireland already has a range of programmes focused on improving energy efficiency, including electricity across all sectors of the economy. These programmes are aimed at improving consumer awareness, promoting energy efficiency in the industrial and public sectors and providing services which support and promote the development of renewable and sustainable energy development. For example, SEI promotes the large industry energy network, a scheme which supports 78 of the largest industrial sites dedicated to reducing their energy intensity. This represents about 40% of industrial energy consumption, with an annual energy spend of approximately €350 million. The scheme operates as a non-binding voluntary agreement managed by SEI and the firms involved achieve an average of 1.4% gain in efficiency per year through their participation in the scheme.
Savings from individual sites vary reflecting the different starting points in terms of prior actions already taken by the firms to reduce emissions as well as the regulatory or technical constraints on process or operational changes. The energy savings achieved by the sites participating in the network is estimated at 285 GWh, equating in environmental terms to a saving of 120,000 tonnes of CO2. In time this approach may be rolled out to the medium and small industry sectors.
