Mr. Aidan Skelly:

I thank the committee for inviting us to participate in this discussion and to provide an overview of EirGrid's role in assisting the country in achieving our key climate change targets. I am joined today by my colleague, Mr. John Fitzgerald, who is director of grid development and interconnection.

Since EirGrid came into existence ten years ago we have placed a key emphasis on ensuring that the national electricity transmission grid is adaptable and flexible. This flexibility has meant that to date we have been able to accommodate the increasing levels of renewable energy being generated. Thanks to work by policy makers such as members of this committee, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment as well as the broader renewable energy industry, Ireland has now become a world leader in the integration of renewables onto the electricity grid. As a country, we are now able to integrate over 60% of our renewables onto the grid. This is what my engineering colleagues call system non-synchronous penetration or SNSP. Our stated aim is to increase this to at least 75% by the end of 2020. This is significantly ahead of our European counterparts and we believe it will assist considerably in helping this country to achieve our 2020 and 2030 targets.

Recently an EirGrid-led consortium was awarded Horizon 2020 funding from the European Commission to see how the successful integration of renewables in Ireland might be transferred to the wider European electricity grid. The project is called the Sysflex project and when finished in 2022, we hope that the learning and success in Ireland will lead the way in helping to decarbonise the European electricity supply.

In terms of delivering an integrated single electricity market, ISEM, another major milestone will be reached in May of this year. Building on the success of the single electricity market on the island of Ireland, which was a key success story of the peace process, the next phase is for us to integrate with the European electricity markets. From May this year, when ISEM goes live, we will benefit from increased competition which we expect to deliver cheaper electricity and increased energy security. Most importantly, we believe that the more competitive market that ISEM will deliver will bring a better price for renewable energy onto the electricity system.

This is accompanied by a strong public demand to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to high carbon prices and incentives for renewables, which creates a high level of renewable generation on the grid.

A third scenario is a slower change where we see there is little change in the way electricity is generated, economic growth is slower and the adoption of new technologies at residential, commercial and electricity generation levels has been slow. The final scenario is where we see consumer action and in a strong economy, members of the public want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In this scenario, electricity consumers will enthusiastically limit their energy use and generate their own energy, there are a large number of community-led energy projects and a rapid adoption of electric vehicles and heat pumps in the home.

These four scenarios are a relatively accurate synopsis of the how electricity usage may develop. The decisions taken by policymakers and legislators in the Dáil and the Seanad will be pivotal in determining which of these scenarios is realised by. As a State-owned organisation, EirGrid assures the joint committee that the national electricity grid will be able to fully cater for each of these scenarios. While we do not advocate for any particular technology - traditional generation or renewable energies - we assure members of our ability and willingness to integrate greater levels of renewables onto the national electricity grid, whether from onshore wind, offshore wind, solar or other renewable sources.

I thank the Chairman and members for the opportunity to update the joint committee on our work on integrating renewable energies. We can provide more detail in the later discussion.