Mr. Joe Duignan:

The 50 kW threshold is closely aligned with Government policy and what gets Government supports. That is one aspect of it. There is already a mechanism there with regard to supports. That is why the pilot scheme was launched in advance. We have launched the pilot scheme for small-scale generation in advance of the outcome of a consultation process the Department is carrying out with regard to support mechanisms for such generation. We have launched a pilot ahead of that so lessons will have been learned and can be taken from it.

From an electrical network perspective, you are talking about trying to connect different capacities onto the system. They have different impacts on the capacity on the network and require different upgrades. Splitting into small groups means that the small guys do not have to go through the same issues, challenges and builds as the bigger ones. That is the idea of subcategorising whereas heretofore a small person would have to apply through the enduring connection policy. Again, the reason for this is to make the process as simple and streamlined as possible.