Mr. Noel Cunniffe:

Today we published our monthly energy report, which all of the committee members will have received in their inbox this morning. It shows that in October the average wholesale price on the days we had the most renewable energy available was €55 per MWh. On days when we did not have renewable energy available or could not utilise it, it was €123 per MWh. It is more than double the price on the days we cannot access or use the renewable energy. If we introduced measures such as LDES, private wires or all of these things, we could minimise dispatch down and grow the level of renewables on our grid, and this would bring price stability and more affordable energy bills. The thing that really catches us with energy bills is that we are still too reliant on imported fossil fuels and we cannot control the price of these. If we continue this level of exposure, we risk Ukraine-like price spikes once again, which will lead to higher electricity bills. With renewables, there will be stability. We know exactly the price of them and they are contracted for 20 years.