Mr. John Melvin:

Regarding additional heat loads, some CHP facilities that we examine can have a cluster of customers and a number of different uses. Some of the applicants can locate themselves close to an existing user and be part of the development of a new user. It is available to developers to do all of the things the Senator mentioned. If industry is located adjacent to the facility that has a use for additional heat, that can increase the efficiency of and economic justification for the facility, be that district heating or co-location with other users. All that a developer could do to increase the efficient and economic utilisation of the heat would be taken into account in the annual certifications as it got new customers, increased the use of the heat nearby or found new users adjacent to it. Some facilities have three or four different uses and two or three different customers in their mix. That is an option for Mayo Renewable Limited or any of the HE CHPs. This is entirely what the energy efficiency directive is about. It is to incentivise this approach, hence the higher payment for HE CHP, and create a mechanism whereby the public moneys involved go towards where there is an economic justification and the new equipment is more efficient that it otherwise would be. All we do in this regard is undertake the role we have been given in legislation to apply the legislation and that test so that the incentive is efficiently applied and goes to where it brings correct benefits.