Ms Avril N? Shearcaigh:

I thank the Deputy. The short answer is there absolutely needs to be a drastic upgrade of the local infrastructure. For example, we are currently trying to develop a local community-owned wind turbine project. A grid assessment on it has already been done by ESB Networks. We originally sought permission for a 2.3 MW grid connection. That would allow us to export a maximum of 2.3 MW of energy onto the grid at any one time. After much debate, negotiation and deliberation, along with investigation by ESB Networks, it turned out the maximum connection it was willing to give our project was 650 KW. That was a massive reduction in the size of our project. Thankfully, our grid connection means the project will still be viable, albeit with a different payback period. The figures all match up and it still looks like it will be a viable project but it will not produce anywhere near as much energy as we need. The reason ESB Networks gave us for the decision is that anything more than 650 KW would cause voltage issues on the island. In the case of mainland projects, if there is a turbine or a solar farm, there is a dedicated export line back to the substation. That would not be possible for us on the islands and it would be cost-prohibitive. We would be feeding into the local distribution network on the islands. We have made many proposals to ESB Networks on this issue. We have answered some of the CRU's consultations and we have tried to get them to agree to testing flexibility and demand-response solutions on the islands. That could allow us to generate and use more clean energy, possibly supplemented from the national grid through the subsea cable which connects the three islands. We have not had any luck in that regard. We believe that as the number of homes on the islands with heat pumps, EVs, PV and battery storage grows, we will be able to continue to expand on that and use flexible demand-response solutions in order to help balance our grid. This is something that will happen on the mainland and will be felt there, but I believe the islands offer a valuable opportunity to the Government and ESB Networks to trial all these technologies and solutions and be able then to scale them up.

The islands are a literal island grid. They are an isolated part of the national grid that operates very much in the same way as the rest of the country but there does not currently seem to be an openness or willingness to trial any new technologies or systems on the islands. We are involved in many European research projects through Horizon Europe and INTERREG with universities and technological experts throughout Europe. We have had projects looking at the areas of demand response and smart solutions in homes, such as for people to optimise the usage of the PV on their roofs and domestic buildings and by developing apps in order to notify the homeowner when surplus electricity is being produced in order that he or she can make the most of it and get the benefit of it. That was before there was a feed-in tariff, so it was even more important for homes not to be exporting electricity onto the national grid and not receiving any payment for it. The projects ran well and were very successful and interesting. We have a valuable opportunity on the islands to trial ways of balancing the grid. It is this whole thing of flattening the curve that we were listening to long before the pandemic and which involves solving the issues relating to intermittency and demand and trying to balance it all out. The islands present a valuable opportunity to the Government and ESB Networks to trial systems that can be put in place to tackle that. It is an issue that will be felt nationwide as we move to more renewables. The islands are not unique in that sense but we are special in that we offer the opportunity to iron out all the kinks before it is scaled up on a national level.