Mr. Mark Foley:

I thank the Chairman for his acknowledgement of Shaping our Electricity Future because it is probably the most ambitious consultation programme ever undertaken by a State company. I will ask Ms Collins to speak to that shortly but, first, I will deal comprehensively with the North-South interconnector project. It has attracted a great deal of controversy and I have been involved in engagements on it as recently as last week.

First, all four approaches in Shaping our Electricity Future assume that the North-South interconnector will be built. I will frame my answer about this project in three questions. First, why is this project needed? Ours is an all-island integrated system, not two systems. Long before me, people worked very hard to create the exemplar of North-South co-operation, the integrated single electricity market. We look at the system as an integrated, all-island system. Second, the current link between Northern Ireland and Ireland is very basic and might best be described in lay language as a modest, single-lane carriageway, to use the analogy of a road network. It is a line that runs up through County Louth and into County Down. This very constrained link threatens security of supply, makes the overall system much more expensive and inhibits greater integration of renewables across the island. Frankly, we are currently moving inexorably towards a two-tier electricity system on the island if we do not address the constraints that are currently in play. To use the roads analogy, in essence, we need a motorway to link Ireland and Northern Ireland. This motorway would function like the spine of a body, transmitting very large volumes of electricity traffic between the North and the South and, essentially, enable the island to be truly one and fully integrated as a power system.

The second question is: why is it proposed to be overground? Alternating current, AC, using overhead lines has been around since electricity was invented 100 years ago. It is safe and reliable. It is the universal network approach in every developed country across the world. Unfortunately, AC lines are very restricted in terms of the extent to which they can be deployed safely and reliably underground. That limit is currently at approximately 50 km and only when there is real strength in the system at both ends. This is an undisputed technical fact. It is a function of physics. The 50 km is at the absolute upper boundary of what can be achieved. The North-South interconnector cannot be delivered using an underground AC cable today. It is close to 140 km long and the enabling infrastructure at both ends is very weak. It is unlikely that such a length of underground AC cable will be possible for decades to come, if ever.

That brings me to the third question: what about using high voltage direct current, HVDC, underground? This question is continuously asked of me and my colleagues in respect of a possible alternative to the North-South interconnector. HVDC involves converting the AC form of electricity into high voltage direct current, transferring it as direct current and converting it back again at the other end.

This technology is available in many parts of the world. In fact, it is used by EirGrid on our east-west interconnector with the UK, it is used extensively on offshore wind farms, and it will be used in EirGrid's proposed Celtic interconnector with France, which is to be commissioned around 2026. This is established technology. The big "but" is that it is not used anywhere in the world in what I would call the central nervous system of a synchronous power system. It is always used on the periphery, where the consequences of failure can be managed. It does fail because of its complexity. It will fail and, therefore, it cannot be relied on in the mission critical environment of our all-island power system. To be clear - when I speak about failure and the consequences of same, such a failure is inevitable. We would see a system collapse in both jurisdictions worse than what happened in Texas recently.

Speaking as someone with no history with this project - I only took up my office with EirGrid in June 2018 - but who has personally investigated the options, the project is only viable as an overhead AC cable. There is no viable alternative. The consequence of not delivering it is that we will effectively end up with two systems across the island with a limited link on the current line. That will drive cost increases in both jurisdictions, send us backwards in terms of the vision that those who came before us had of an all-island integrated system, and make the job of achieving 70% renewables more difficult because we will almost be doing it as two separate projects in two separate jurisdictions. These are the honest facts about the North-South interconnector. There is a great deal of noise about the project and many people are suggesting that A, B and C are possible, but these are the facts.

I thank the Chairman for indulging me. It was a long answer, but it had to be that full. I will pass over to Ms Collins to address the second part of the question on how Shaping our Electricity Future is going, what have we done and what is to come.