Dr. Paul McGowan:

I will respond on smart meters. I was talking about the relationship between opt-in and opt-out in the context of what we might do differently to improve the reduction in demand which would assist overall towards the reduction in the need for fossil fuel and acceleration towards renewable energy integration into the system. Obviously, part of any assessment of making a change like that looks at the impact it has on various consumer types but, as a basic measure, there is no doubt that asking people to do this but giving them the option not to will see a higher uptake. That in itself would assist in demand reduction, which overall would assist in the transition.

With regard to communities, and my colleagues might also comment, we have said previously many times that the role of communities and the need to ensure communities are part of and are brought into the transition is key. That includes being part of the planning process, but also public acceptance of the need for infrastructure and for these different technologies in different locations is paramount. There is no single answer to this but part of it is engagement through the planning process and people being active. We are talking about active communities building their own wind turbines, batteries or hybrids and people being active consumers by putting in their own batteries, solar panels and so forth.

Without community buy-in there is a risk to a successful transition, so it is fundamental. It is fundamental not just to the planning process, but to the entire transition.