Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 30 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Liquefied Natural Gas and Oil Prospecting: Discussion

Professor Barry McMullin:

On the first question, I need to say there is a term of art on demand management, which, in the electricity sector in particular, is definitely different from demand reduction. It means moving demand around in time. Demand reduction is a different thing. It means reducing demand. There is much activity around demand management. We also talk about flexible demand and flexibility of demand. They are important to managing the system but they are not central to the overarching picture of decarbonisation.

We certainly need consideration of measures and interventions or whatever that would limit aggregate energy use. As I said, electricity needs to grow, but other things need to shrink, at least commensurately and preferably faster against a background of a growing population. It is not easy. In terms of how many people and whether there should be staff in the public system investigating and responsible for this, yes, I think there should. I would not want to comment on how many or where they should be located.

I am sorry; the other question was----