Dáil debates

Wednesday, 29 June 2022

EirGrid, Electricity and Turf (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

3:22 pm

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being inadvertently late.

To answer Deputy Naughten and others, we have estimated that a €350 million charge from our Department's Vote to EirGrid this year is the likely expenditure. There may be some further cost but we will not know that until all the contractual arrangements are in place. We cannot be specific because contract negotiations are ongoing as we speak. As he is a former Minister, Deputy Naughten will know we do not want to undermine the State's ability to get the best value for money.

We also have to remember that, in many ways, these 450 MW are providing what we would have provided had our auction process in recent years delivered a very similar quantity, in a sense, and that process would have borne a similar cost. I do not believe it is providing a significant additional cost on the public because this is equipment we knew we needed. We were just unfortunate in the auction process. We wanted to deliver similar open cycle, fast reaction, derivative-type generators. These were bid for and we succeeded in the auction process, but they were subsequently not delivered for a variety of reasons, including delays in the planning system and suppliers and power generator manufacturers not being able to meet the commitments they had made - there were a number of different reasons. To a certain extent, this cost could have been borne two years earlier, preferably, and we would have much preferred had the auction process delivered what we had expected it to deliver.

With regard to the cost on the household at a particular time, that will depend on the final contract price with the operators, and a number of operators are potential providers of this equipment. As I said, we have to have a contract with the purchaser of the equipment but also with the generators and developers, so we will know the full final cost only at that stage. However, the estimate we have today is less than the one mentioned by Deputy Whitmore. It is a smaller number and is, in effect, a fraction of the €75 per household we estimate households will benefit from the PSO, which had not been expected. It is one of the few benefits or upsides from the high price of electricity we are experiencing at the present.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.