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

I met EirGrid, the ESB and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities recently. Therefore, this issue is at the top of our agenda and minds at the moment. The Deputy is right that the grid is key in this transformation. Having a flexible grid of a sufficient scale is vital. I will pick out three examples of what we are learning from that. First, I have huge confidence in EirGrid. We have given it the task of developing the offshore grid. It will need to be resourced and given the financial capability to deploy that. Many policies will go to Government and come out in the next month. One will be our interconnection policy. We are building two interconnectors at the moment. We will build more to the UK, France and beyond. That is significant and requires significant investment.

We also have to focus on ESB Networks, particularly because it is not just about the big interconnection and transmission grid. We have to look right at the street and how we put in new storage facilities at the local transformer station. Critically, we have to work with the Data Protection Commissioner so that we have good sharing of data and have real public confidence in the use of that non-identifying data about collective use on the street so that we can start switching on and off devices and give ourselves real capability at the distribution grid level.

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