Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 4 October 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
Energy Prices: Discussion
Mr. Nicholas Tarrant:
Since 2011, customers have had the option of building the connection themselves for their generation connection. This means that over the last decade or so, customers have had a choice as to where they go. For renewables connections overall, taking RESS-1 connections as an example, approximately 70% of the connections are being built by the developers themselves. In that case, they have control over the costs around the main part of their connection. Then there is a component that we have in our live substations. The connection charging policy is something the CRU consulted on. It has gone through a benchmarking exercise and there have been opportunities for developers to comment on this. Ultimately, the CRU has approved our overall charges. The Deputy asked specifically about community energy projects. I will ask Mr. Duignan to talk about that as he is heavily involved in that area.