Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 11 December 2013

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Rationale for Sanctioning Energy Price Increases: Discussion with Commission for Energy Regulation

2:40 pm

Mr. Paul McGowan:

It would be hard to draw that immediate conclusion. Grid25 is being rolled out for a number of reasons, first, to help meet renewable targets. The wires are needed in order to ensure the system can handle that level of renewables, but also to ensure that the lights stay on. Much of the emphasis on grid roll-out is on security of supply. A cost will be associated with those wires but, for example, the North-South interconnector infrastructure would remove between €30 million and €40 million of constraint costs from the single electricity market per annum. I think that is the correct number but it might be lower than that – between €20 million and €30 million. In that instance, that particular wire has a direct cost impact on the market.

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