Dr. Paul McGowan:

I will take one or two of those questions at a high level before passing them on to some of my colleagues. On the grid and its ability to cope with future demands, through the price control we look to the utility to bring forward what it considers to be the investment that needs to be put in place to meet future demands. The utilities carry out rigorous exercises to try to forecast demand in both optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. They try to pitch an infrastructure investment plan that will meet the needs of the next five years, as well as looking into the longer term with longer-term projects. We work with them and determine whether their plan is reasonable. Ultimately, our decision on their revenue control will ensure they have the funds available to make the necessary investments.

The Deputy mentioned data centres and their impact on grids. It is clear that data centres are a significant driver of demand on the Irish electricity system and that will continue in the near future. They tend to be fairly flat loads and, therefore, they tend to be a reasonably efficient load to feed. Nevertheless, they raise the peak and they will have an impact on grids. Part of what we are trying to do is ensure that data centres can locate in parts of the country where there is more capacity on the grid than in others because they will take less time to connect. If they insist on connecting in areas where there is a lack of grid access, our role is to see whether they can be part of the solution. As part of their development, can they deliver some of their own energy solutions, while also recognising that in some cases time may be required to roll out the grid and meet their demands? Ultimately, one of our roles is to ensure the cost of all of this infrastructure is met on a fair and equitable basis across the range of customers.

On the roll-out of smart technology, I will hand over to Mr. Melvin or Ms MacEvilly, who are more up to date.