Mr. Jim Gannon:

On the question of what exists right now, besides what Mr. Foley may have been referring to, the predominance of on-site generation is diesel backup generation. That is for now. It is what many use right now and could be called upon in the wintertime should it be necessary. Our experience in having dialogue with the industry is that more of them are looking at longer-term battery storage, which may not be able to just replace backup generation; it may also be uninterruptible power supply units, UPS, that help them in cases where their electricity is shut off due to a fault, even internally within their site, and it could support them in a number of different ways. Separately, some are certainly looking at natural gas generation on the site, co-located on their campus. Some are looking at the long-term future of that and what it could be converted to, including being fired by hydrogen in the longer term. There are a number of options there.

The Deputy asked how long it may take for new larger scale generation to come into the system. It can take between three to four years or even in excess of that. By the time they come to the auction process, many would have their development significantly along that development pipeline but some would not and would be coming from a standing start. Others would have projects significantly further along the pipeline. It varies from project to project but it does take time to deliver infrastructure in this country, as we would have seen elsewhere.