Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Am I mistaken in saying that the grant for batteries has been withdrawn and there is no longer a grant for batteries? It seems slightly counterintuitive to what the witnesses are saying that it is a very good way of shaving peaks. I believe the domestic grant is gone.

I have a few questions. The point was raised, which we have heard on a number of occasions, on the delay in getting through critical infrastructure. I am interested to hear what specific recommendations the witnesses would have for the committee on how that system can be improved. Where is it falling down? As we set out ambitions, as we have done for offshore and so on, it is a concern if this system continues to fail.

The commission is the regulator. Does it not have more power than it is exercising to get demand management into the system through the entities it regulates? For example, with electric vehicle, EV, charges the commission could seek to move our whole taxi fleet to EVs. The public service vehicle could be much more efficient to run. The commission could promote high utilisation and lower costs compared with each of us having our own car in our driveway and so on. To what extent is the commission leveraging what it could do? Is it leveraging, for example, status yellow weather warnings? If we know that there is going to be cold weather of between 5°C and 7°C tonight with no wind should the commission not be out there saying that now is the time to trigger these changes? Consider smart meters for example. As I understand it, and maybe the witnesses will correct me if I am wrong, smart meters are not being utilised to their full extent because of GDPR objections to utilising them.

Surely in an energy crisis we can find a way to make use of smart meters, of which we now have 1 million - nearly half of all homes - to help us utilise this technology we have put in at very considerable expense. It appears we are not utilising it. I could go on with examples of things we could be trying to do that are relatively low cost and low-hanging fruit. It seems to me that the witnesses are in a pivotal position to tell the regulated entities that they need to adopt this as part of the expectations of what they are doing. It does seem to me that that is not happening.

To go back to Deputy O'Sullivan's point, I could imagine an energy-saving company going into Cork University Hospital - or any other hospital - with an offer, but it would be very hard to expect the hospital to do this given all the things on its plate. Could the CRU not mandate its regulated entities to be such energy-saving companies for some of these areas of opportunity? As I said before on this committee, we should not waste a crisis. Perhaps the CRU is at a pivotal point to make that switch.