Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 24, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following:

"Amendment of section 9 of Act of 199912. Section 9 of the Act of 1999 is amended in subsection (4) by the insertion of the following—

"(g) to promote the development of the demand-side of energy markets through energy efficiency, demand-side response, distributed generation, storage and the use of digital technologies;

(h) to provide consumers the ability to provide, consume and trade their own energy supply;

(i) to encourage transmission and system operators to make use of demand-side flexibility for cost effective system operation and infrastructure development;

(j) to allow distribution system operators be renumerated by measures other than assessment of the throughput of energy volumes;

(k) to advance the integration of the heat, power and transport sectors to increase the overall flexibility and efficiency of the energy system;

(l) to insure that market prices reflect the availability or scarcity of supply and the status of the electricity network and that consumers are made aware of the potential value of providing flexibility in their demand for the use of electricity;

(m) to provide for the ability of consumers to enter contract arrangements which allow them to procure a guaranteed percentage of renewable energy power from their electricity supply company; and

(n) to promote the use of storage technologies in the balancing of electricity demand and supply.".".

I will briefly explain the amendment. The Bill offers us an opportunity to update section 9 of the 1999 Act which sets out the issues to which the Commission for Energy Regulation must have regard. The Act is remarkably out of date as energy policy and the entire energy market have changed completely since its introduction. For this reason, section 9 needs to be updated to ensure it is in tune with the latest thinking on how electricity markets work. The Commission for Energy Regulation must be given a political direction that efficiency, demand management, self-generation and the balancing of a variable power supply with variable demand are the critical tasks on which it must deliver.

In the original legislation, the areas to which the Commission for Energy Regulation must have regard were primarily competition, meeting supply, financial prudence and so forth. While these requirements remain, the energy market and system have changed completely and we should use this opportunity to reflect this change in the legislation.

The amendment sets out in simple terms some of the broad elements of the new and evolving demand management market. These include self-generation and integrating heat and transport and not only electricity in the markets. This would completely flip the market model. Rather than simply measuring as much flow as one can get through the system, we must start to pay the utility, distribution and transmission operators not for the amount of power they distribute but on the basis of how little power they distribute. We should pay more for using less, as provided for in the amendment. This approach is very much in tune with what the European Commission has indicated will be part of its new governance and market arrangements, which we expect will be announced in the autumn. It is also in tune with what all progressive new utilities are doing.

The provisions inserted in the Bill under the amendment would provide the political guidance the regulator needs. Ireland is falling behind and is one of the few countries in western Europe that does not allow people to trade self-generated power. We are also falling behind in the roll-out of small meters and the integration of demand management and efficiency. We must make a political statement to the regulator in which we set out the areas on which we want progress to be made.

Amendment No. 8 is more specific and proposes to amend section 14 of the 1999 Act in respect of the issuing of licences. I am conscious that the Minister will argue that we must be careful in this regard because of the North and the need to enact the Bill quickly. The main purpose of the amendment is to signal the possibility that this jurisdiction will introduce a licence on a geographically limited area to allow a local community to generate power and manage energy efficiency such that it becomes a local energy community that is much more effective and active in how it uses and trades electricity.

It is important to signal that we can issue a geographic licence, rather than having to treat the entire market as a single market, while recognising that those local markets would also have to have the ability to synchronise or connect into the wider market and cannot be disruptive to the overall market.

Last but not least, there is a provision in the amendment to the effect that we should be able to allow consumers, third-party aggregators and energy service companies to provide demand-side resources in wholesale balancing and ancillary service electricity markets. That is the way the markets will go. We need to update our legislation to encourage it in this country and in our single electricity market.