Mr. John Melvin:

The pay-as-you-save concept will be driven by the SEAI as the lead agency. From our point of view, one of the key issues to be considered in that process is that customers will still be allowed to switch supplier even after making the initial investment. The likely role for the CRU, as part of the project team, will be to ensure that it works in such a way as to ensure that consumers who make an investment through an individual supplier will not be trapped or locked in to that supplier for an extended period. We will try to remove any barrier in the minds of consumers that might prevent them from engaging with the pay-as-you-save concept. One of the key issues will be to try to ensure that the scheme can work and allow customers to change supplier over time. We will try to ensure that this is not a barrier in the minds of consumers. The first stage of that is to be delivered by 2021. We will be an active participant in that work stream which will, in large part, be led by the SEAI. Our focus will be on ensuring that there is not an actual barrier to consumers switching if they engage with this and also to ensure that there is no perceived barrier.

On smart metering, Eirgrid publishes the carbon intensity of the electricity on the grid every half hour, which is constantly changing. Obviously, as the wind blows, the carbon intensity is lowered. The price tends to be lower when the wind is blowing. The carbon intensity tends to increase when the renewables are not there on the grid. One of the key things that smart metering will do is allow people to see that when there is a high level of renewables on the grid, the price will tend to be lower. This will allow people to benefit by shifting their consumption to those periods. That is one of the key but very difficult to quantify benefits of smart metering. Trials showed that Irish customers used 2.5% less electricity overall when smart meters were installed. They also shifted around 8.8% of their consumption away from the peak. We can quantify those two elements which were included in the cost-benefit analysis but it is really difficult for us to quantify the amount of carbon savings that would derive from this. The half-hourly data will be visible and clear in the market. If people install smart meters and have the half-hourly data shared with their supplier, they can really become what is know as "prosumers", and actively move their consumption to those periods. All of that technology is out there and available and surveys we have conducted show that the normal, average Irish consumer is willing to engage in these kinds of behaviours.