Mr. Cillian O'Donoghue:

There are three questions. One is on small module reactors, SMRs, another is on storage and then on behavioural campaigns. Taking SMRs and storage together, whether Ireland should do SMRs or not, that is not for me to decide. However, we need to be clear that we need a base load source of electricity going forward and if that is not gas then nuclear is probably the best option. That is for policymakers to decide. On storage I agree with what Senator Keogan said. We need a clear plan to have flexible and storage. If we go all out for intermittent wind what balances the grid? Is it batteries, hydro, gas or nuclear? Those are the things that need to be considered. It definitely should be looked at and an impact assessment done before deciding if SMRs are the way to go. That is for policymakers to decide.

On behavioural campaigns, the EU will not be taking a controlling approach on this. I had a meeting earlier this week, a round table with the US and EU where we discussed various best practices to reduce demand. The main thing we need is to have awareness-raising among citizens and share information on what has worked. Smart meters make sense, where people have technologies on their phones so that they know they should not use energy between certain hours. It is linked to digitalisation. The more data we have on energy usage and the more proactive the consumer is, the better it will be in terms of reducing electricity usage in peak hours. That is definitely an important way to go.