Mr. Fintan Slye:

To return to the PCI process, once the application is with An Bord Pleanála my understanding of the process is that it generally looks like the standard process that exists today in that it appoints an inspector who examines the project. It has a series of consultations on it in which everyone has an opportunity to have their say. An oral hearing is conducted. My understanding of it is that it is not significantly different in terms of what the process looks like from the point of application forward. That is it in terms of the PCI process.

The next point I picked up was on the new advanced technology we are deploying on the Grid Link as an option, alongside the overhead solution and the underground solution in terms of series compensation technology and why that is not applicable to the North-South project. I would say it is also not applicable to the Grid West project. I will attempt to explain and if I do not do so adequately, members can feel free to interrupt me. It is technology that is deployed on existing transmission lines in existing transmission stations.

It is large transmission kit such as one would see in a transmission station. It is put on the ends of a transmission line and it changes the electrical characteristics of that transmission line and allows more power to be pushed over the line than would happen in the absence of this technology. When this technology is put in, it allows the maximisation of the power transfer over the existing transmission line. Advanced control systems now allow the possibility to change how that happens from the control centre as well.

In the case of Grid Link, that works because we have a need to move large amounts of power from the south and south west, where generation is growing in the Cork-Kerry area, up towards the east, centred around Dublin where there is demand growth. That is one of the key parts of the Grid Link project. There is a multiplicity of existing transmission lines which run from the general south and south-east area to the Dublin area. The existing transmission network covering that is a mesh network. Therefore, existing transmission lines are in place upon which we can place this technology to maximise use. If that multiplicity of lines can currently carry 100 units of power, by deploying this technology we can raise that to, say, 110 or 120 units of power.

We need to do two other things as well to solve the Grid Link issue. One is to up-rate seven or eight existing lines in the Golden Vale south-east region, which we can do. That involves upgrading and changing conductors on the lines in existing infrastructure to allow them to carry more power. The second thing we need to do is to install another cable underneath the River Shannon. We are trying to get power which is being generated in the Cork-Kerry area out so we need to get it underneath the Shannon and onto the 400 kV lines, where we are going to deploy this technology, and maximise the use of those 400 kV lines, which start at Moneypoint station and travel up towards Dublin.

That is why it works in the case of Grid Link. It does not work in the case of North-South or Grid West because the problem is a different one In the case of North-South, the problem is that there are two different transmission grids. We have a single, all-island energy market but two transmission grids with, currently, one link between them. We need to enable the two grids to be operated more seamlessly together to maximise the benefits of the all-island market. To do that, we need to put in place another piece of infrastructure alongside the existing one. We do not have the underlying network to utilise; it needs new infrastructure. Hence, the technical options boil down to an overhead option or an underground option to do that.