Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 October 2022
194. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will provide details of the purchase of emergency generation capacity and mobile turbines; the total cost involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53316/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Commission of Regulation of Utilities which has statutory responsibility to ensure security of supply, has the duty to monitor electricity supplies and to take sure measures as it considers necessary to protect the security of supply. It is assisted in its role by EirGrid and my Department. The CRU currently has a programme of actions underway to ensure the security of our electricity supply over the coming winters. The Security of Supply Programme of actions contains a number of both demand and supply side mitigation measures to address the forecasted shortfall. These actions include; procurement of new, enduring capacity through a number of capacity auctions; procuring additional temporary generation; extending the availability of existing generation capacity; additional use of grid-scale batteries; and improved demand side measures.
For the second tranche of c.450MW temporary generation, the level of financial support required via my Department to support EirGrid to meet the estimated upfront cost is €350 million in 2022 and two supplementary estimates to Vote 29 were given to facilitate this. This capital will be used by EirGrid to place orders on the units to ensure that they are produced and installed for Winter 2023/24. The ongoing operational costs will be administered from the Transmission Use of System (TUoS) network tariffs and spread out over the lifetime of the usage of the generation plant.
CRU have previously estimated that the total cost to consumers of the second tranche of c.450MW is approximately €40 per average domestic bill over the next billing year. However, this cost estimate does not take into account the resale value of the generation units and the end of the generation period in a few years’ time. This resale value could offer significant clawback of costs which would lower the cost to consumers in subsequent years.
