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

The consultation is due to conclude at the very latest early next year but the officials hope it can be concluded before the end of this year. I will be very keen to see a rapid conclusion. It will not come to a decision but it will elucidate the various views. This is a complex issue. It has been looked at for many years. It has been stalled by concerns about possible unintended consequences. My view is that we are in changing market circumstances. Power is very tight and we are now at the very edge of any country's development of renewables. If we are to have a balancing capability, where it is not just for power generation but also for potential storage solutions, then private wires could provide us with support integrated into the grid.

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The environment is changing and it may allow us the opportunity to start developing self-generation in this way, be it through private direct wires or networks where we move away from the historic position and start looking at the sort of potential that is available. We have to be careful and make sure it does not undermine other investments or the ESB network, which is a vital piece of infrastructure for us. There is real potential to bring new power generation into a country where that will be critical in the next ten years as well as new balancing capabilities.

EirGrid is saying that it wants to work with large energy users in terms of flexible demand response and their generation helping the system when times are difficult. In that sort of changing and evolving market, it seems to be that the balance will move towards allowing private wires and self-generation, which large industrial users have been seeking for some time but we have not been able to deliver.

I will wait the conclusion of the consultation before finalising the arrangements, but that has to happen within months, not any longer than that.

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