Mr. Brendan Barry:

On the storage, one must look to where the industry is going in the next ten or 15 years with this mix of renewables we have talked about and their intermittency. What we see for the future is a mixture of the renewables, the interconnection we have already and possibly more of that. We already have storage in the ESB facility at Turlough Hill. There could be a little more of that. However, we are moving beyond that to the customer playing a more active role in the market. In other words, focusing on the demand and having more flexible demand will have to be a feature, with the customer playing a more active role in how and when they use electricity. It could be things such as the use of electric vehicles and picking the right times to charge those vehicles and so forth. That will be a feature. Storage will also be a part of the mix. I do not think there is any single solution. It is a mixture of those types of solutions that will allow this level of renewables. Our 2020 target is to reach 40% from renewables. What that means for the Irish electricity system is that there will be times when over 75% of demand will be met by wind. That is a very big challenge. It is being worked on at present through various programmes to ensure it can happen over the next number of years.

It is a challenge. We are well aware that when ocean energy takes off in the 2020s, it must be on top of what is there already in terms of onshore wind. It can only work in the context of interconnection, export, storage and the customer playing a much more active role. That will be facilitated through new technologies and so forth in due course, whereby the customer will be able to play a more active role in helping to smooth demand to match the available generation from renewable sources.