Mr. Conall Bolger:

This is where the benefit of the direct line idea comes into play. Currently, if one is going to transmit electricity over cables, there is a requirement to always get a distribution licence. ESB Networks has this. If, for example, a community centre or an agrifood business are connected into the public electricity network and then it is proposed to build a solar farm just across the road, you cannot just link the two up. The operator of that solar farm goes off to build connections and all the necessary infrastructure, which is then handed over to ESB Networks to operate and own.

There is a lot of scope for the direct lines approach. The obvious immediate use case is probably large industry like the agrifood industry. We are talking about data centres at the moment and their energy consumption. We think there is an opportunity there and if they are generating more of their power on-site that will help with the issue. In the long term we see the direct line option offering some structures for community-based energy solutions like the models that are being described. The future of the power system is that every building in the country will generate its own power with large-scale utility solar and wind battery storage. There will be large-scale offshore wind farms with hydrogen and so forth and all of those systems will talk to each other. We are not there yet but undertaking the direct line approach is one piece of the jigsaw that helps to get us there. We have a restrictive approach to this currently and a lot of the other countries do not; they make it a lot easier.