Ms Karen Trant:

We do not have a defined target at the moment but from the beginning, we would have looked to move the majority of customers to time of use. We would be targeting over 50% while acknowledging that there are always a few who it just does not suit. Regarding the ambition, we are seeing better value being offered by suppliers. The kind of comparisons we do are based on standard profiles. Every household is different. The real power is suppliers getting to know their customers' profiles better and making better offerings that will help the customers to save. It is not just that it would be cheaper, if one does nothing, to switch to this smart tariff, but that people can save even more money if they shift demand, such as if they are electric vehicle users and use suppliers' super overnight charging tariff rates. The opportunity to save more rather than just doing nothing and being on a cheaper tariff is what we are trying to tap into.

Regarding take-up at the moment, 14% of people are on smart services. Some are just getting the data rather than the smart tariff or time of use tariff. When we did the trials, simply having the data was important because customers have so little understanding of their own consumption without smart metering data that they do not really know what is driving high consumption or where they are using too much. I am happy to see customers opting in to getting their data. ESB Networks now provides those data in order that customers can log in to the ESB Networks and access the data themselves. ESB Networks recently uploaded the vast majority of customer data and will advertise how customers can access the data soon. We are at the starting point of the potential. With the focus and pressure on consumption, I would say that every household in Ireland has paid more attention to this in the last winter than ever before in their lives. There is a real opportunity for us to say that there is something that can help people to understand that better and save money, by changing what they are doing and shifting peak demand. That is where the benefit is. As I mentioned, we will address some of this in our demand-side strategy.

Regarding what the 30% demand flexibility target means, one of the first questions we will ask in our consultation is to hone in on a definition. Everyone has a slightly different definition of what they mean. Broadly, the concept is that we are moving from a system with large clunky machines which switched on when consumer demand increased to a high-renewable system where there are times where we will have massive oversupply of renewables and want to incentivise customers to match demand at those times. There will be times when renewables will be low and we want to incentivise customers to reduce their demand at those times. It is not just about the 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. peak but about being more agile and dynamic. That is part of the climate action plan target as well. How do customers benefit from this large supply of renewables as we increase penetration?