Mr. Bobby Smith:

There is a cost to turning out wind energy and turning on gas generation in its place. Right now, that is around €800 million per year. EirGrid does the maths on that and publishes that figure every year. It is tracked. What we can do about it is build grid, energy storage and other types of flexibility provider into the system. According to more recent analysis that we have done, which we will be presenting in more detail in the audiovisual room briefing that Deputy Heneghan is hosting for us, for which we thank him, building 2 GW of six- and eight-hour duration batteries - the technology that is readily available today, and products already have planning and in-grid connection and could be deployed in the next few years - could save consumers around €102 million net per year. That includes the cost of the storage. It would reduce the imperfection cost and deliver a net saving to consumers of just over €100 million per year. That would reduce the wholesale cost of energy because we would be displacing the more expensive gas plants. We would be reducing the compensation costs for turndown wind energy and saving on carbon cost.