Mr. Jim Gannon:

Part of the core of Deputy Bruton's question was whether these responses and what brought us through last winter were just temporary measures or whether some of it was embedded. Our reflection is that some of the measures are now embedded and should and can be retained. On the example of the network tariffs I referred to, if that is giving us a demand response at certain periods which generally correspond to or can also contribute to decarbonisation, perhaps they should be retained and are in the best interests of consumers. Similarly, there were operational responses such as the more optimised use of our batteries instead of just for quick responsiveness, to again address that peak. The target was to try to utilise those to the extent of 50 MW. We and EirGrid overperformed on that in the utilisation and optimisation of those batteries. Why should we not also retain that and use that in the future?

Some of these practices should and will be embedded. Others should be temporary measures. As Mr. Melvin said, in the past winter we did not enter amber alert. A number of additional measures did not need to be resorted to, such as mandatory demand control with the data centres-----