David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 53: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 95 of 26 January 2010, 108 of 2 March 2010 and 86 of 20 October 2010, the way he plans to improve take up of the microgeneration programme supported by the ESB; the progress made to date in the review of the take up of the scheme he commenced at the start of the year in conjunction with ESB; his views on including other electricity suppliers in the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44972/10]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 61: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 95 of 26 January 2010 and 86 of 20 October 2010, the number of customers now signed up to the microgeneration scheme supported by the ESB; his views on whether the target of 4,000 domestic customers can be reached; the reasons the scheme is still confined to domestic customers given that less than 10% of the take-up target of the scheme has been reached; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44971/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 53 and 61 together.

The total number of eligible customers on the ESB Microgeneration Tariff to date is 337 with a total connected capacity of some 1974.08kW. A total of some 484,115kWh were exported by Micro Generation customers between 26 February 2009 and 31 October 2010. The types of technology used are as follows:

Wind Turbine installations = 290

PV installations = 45

Hydro Turbines installations = 2

ESB Networks (ESBN) is currently processing a further 20 customer applications, although it is noted that they may not all eventually come to full fruition. ESB Networks is providing the necessary import/export metering free of charge to the first four thousand eligible domestic customers. This free metering scheme is open to the domestic customers of all electricity suppliers who wish to install micro-generators. As a further initiative to support micro-generation, ESB Networks provides an extra support payment of 10 cents per kWh for those eligible customers (irrespective of their supplier) for the first 3000kWh exported annually for a period of five years.

Currently, ESB Customer Supply is the only electricity supplier in Ireland offering micro-generation tariffs to domestic customers who generate up to 11kW (when connection is three phase). This offering provides for a micro-generation tariff of 9 cents per kWh, paid to ESB Customer Supply eligible customers who export onto the grid.

The figure of 4,000 customers was originally agreed between ESB Networks, the Commission for Energy Regulation and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. The ESB has stated that the four thousand free import/export meters is a boundary for a part of ESB's commitment in the package of supports for micro-generation, with a view to getting a Microgeneration Tariff Scheme up and running, and is not a target number for customer uptake.

There are technical constraints that also limit the category of customers that can connect to the network as micro-generators. This is regularly reviewed and, from August 2010, ESB Networks has extended the micro-generation support initiative to domestic generators that limit their maximum export capacity (MEC) to 6kW single phase and 11kW three phase. This means that a single phase domestic customer with a 15kW turbine installation can now qualify for the support initiative, provided they limit their export to 6kW.

The Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland is currently running an 18-month microgeneration pilot scheme and is monitoring the installations in the programme. The findings from the pilot will provide valuable data with regard to microgeneration and will help inform policy and improvements for the sector going forward. My intention is that there would be a wider microgeneration support scheme introduced and options for this are currently under consideration.