Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

Responsibility for connection offers under the gate 3 process is a matter for the Commission for Energy Regulation. My responsibilities relates to the allocation of support under the renewable energy feed in tariff programme, REFIT. The selection and allocation criteria for compliant projects under REFIT are set out in the competition notes.

All compliant applications received on the same day are ranked ahead of applications received on succeeding days. If the capacity of all compliant applications received on the same day exceeds the remaining capacity, I can decide to prioritise by the earliest forecast delivery date for a connection by technology, category or by lot. Alternatively, I have the discretion to increase the support capacity available.

The competition notes, as published, proposed support for 400 MW. It is the case that all compliant applications submitted to date have been accepted and the cumulative support allocated is in excess of 1,000 MW. The REFIT conditions also provide for a reserve list of applicants ranked using the same allocation criteria as applied in the initial selection process.

The REFIT programme is subject to EU State-aid clearance. We have already obtained State-aid clearance to allocate support up to 1,450 MW in the onshore categories announced in the initial launch. Any allocation above 1,450 MW and allocations in the categories of biomass anaerobic digestion, offshore wind and wave and tidal will require EU State-aid clearance before support can be confirmed in a binding manner. I have asked my Department to progress the State-aid submission with the European Commission as a matter of urgency.

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