Results 81-100 of 8,701 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: That is what I wanted to clarify.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: I do not think anybody can accuse us of not having put a huge amount of our available eggs into one basket in terms of use. I do not even know if that is the right metaphor. On the disjoin people are seeing between the decrease for these large energy users and bills and the increase in terms of domestic bills, the witnesses mentioned the temporary energy flexible generation piece. Can I...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: If we are comparing 2021 to 2025, we need to bear in mind that was also a period of time when there was the end of a previously inequitable rebalancing piece that was happening at the same time.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: To come back to the question on the large energy users, I want to pull out on a couple of things to be clear what is and is not, because we have been told previously that CRU can and cannot do different things. That has shifted over the period of time. For example, on prioritisation, there is prioritisation in terms of access to connections. When we look at PR6 in terms of the increase and...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: It would be useful if we could get a written piece of where the gap is. Is it in the mandate of CRU? Is it in the functions of CRU? Where exactly is the gap in terms of that capacity?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: That would be really useful. I am assuming, from that context, that in PR6 we do not have ring-fencing of domestic connections. Is PR6 planning for, or has it planned for, new data centre connections beyond those that already have a connection agreement?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: I ask Mr. Mulligan to be specific because my time is tight.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: Unfortunately, I cannot hear the full picture of PR6. I have a number of questions I wish to get to.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: I am very keen to get back in.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: Is there any ring-fencing for housing within PR6? Is that planned for? Is there planning in this planned approach for new connections of data centres beyond those where there is an existing connection agreement? Within that planning, is there planning for what form of energy users it will be? I ask the witnesses to clarify, but one of the other areas we have been told CRU cannot or will...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: Is there is no ring-fencing?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: If we still have a first come, first served basis for connections, there is no guarantee of that new capacity going to-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: Have they planned for new data centre connections?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: And is there nothing specified in terms of the energy usage?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: I will wait and come back.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: I echo what the Chair said: mandate is very different from maximise. The language in the opening statement is a bit discouraging. It says providing "a pathway for LEU connections ... minimising, where possible, potential negative impacts on national renewable energy targets and carbon emissions." We need to be far past "minimising, where possible" the negative impacts; we are in a space...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: The last point about that connection thing, Chair, relates to the connection policy. Can the witnesses clarify that? We often hear about demand flexibility. I think demand reduction is something we probably need to look at and we do not. In terms of demand flexibility, is it still the plan that there would be compensation for large energy users for dropping, changing or shifting the times...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: In the current draft.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Alice-Mary Higgins: It really should be, to be frank.