Mr. Paul Kenny:

There are some interesting questions there. My first point is around heat pumps and flexible demand. We have just finished a research project with ESB Networks and Electric Ireland. We have tried a tariff at a fixed level to see if we can move the demand. It was universal. Once there is a reasonable level of retrofit in the house, we can put in the heat during whichever hour of the day that the grid requests. We have definitely moved it all out of the peak periods. However, we will still need to introduce heat at least every day or at least twice a day, for want of a better term.

How close are we to this? It is a question of digitisation of the energy system. Heat pumps can do the work but the communications infrastructure is not quite in place. I will not get into broadband today but that is very much part of it. If we need to dump load quickly to protect a transformer, then we need robust communications to manage flexible demand. One really interesting thing is that at -5°C the average load is 2.8 kW across the 20 homes we surveyed. The design load of the grid is 2.5 kW. There is no issue with the grid from an effective demand point of view with heat pumps, but it is very different if we put an extra 7 kW for an electric vehicle outside the house. From that point of view, we are not there in the sense of being able to roll that out tomorrow. However, there is no reason we could not do so. There is no technology barrier. It is a question of designing how we do it and coming up with the payment mechanisms or the standards. For example, if a person installs a heat pump then we need to specify that that person must do this, that and the other. Some German cantons have required use of a smart-grid-enabled heat pump that can be dumped if required. That is the sort of thing I would suggest rather than the market payment mechanism, which holds that it has to be done a given way.

Deputy Eamon Ryan asked about deep retrofitting 500 to 1,000 houses. The deep retrofit programme had 220 dwellings. Other homes were renovated in other Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland schemes, including better energy communities, as well as non-grant-aided projects. The data I looked at indicated that approximately 500 homes were rated B2 with a heat pump. They were registered for grant purposes. There are more houses besides these that are not certified with a building energy rating. I reckon the figure is somewhere between 500 and 1,000.