Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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402. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the amount collected from the public service obligation levy on energy bills for each of the past five years in tabular form. [23142/16]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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403. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the way the public service obligation levies collected from energy bills over the past five years have been distributed across solar, wind, wave, fossil and biofuels for each of the past five years in tabular form. [23143/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 402 and 403 together.

The Public Service Obligation (PSO) Levy has been in place since 2001. The PSO levy consists of a set of support schemes designed to facilitate the achievement of national electricity policy objectives for renewables, indigenous fuels and security of supply. It also supports employment in the renewables industry and in the peat industry. The proceeds of the PSO levy are used to contribute to the additional relevant costs incurred by PSO-supported electricity generators which are not recovered in the electricity market.  Recent international studies have shown that Ireland has had one of the lowest per unit supports for renewable energy in the European Union.

The overarching objective of the Government’s energy policy is to ensure secure and sustainable supplies of competitively priced energy to all consumers. The PSO has supported the connection of more than 2,000 MW of renewable energy to the electricity grid and will continue to support the development of renewable energy so that the target for 40% renewable electricity penetration by 2020 is met.

My Department is currently working on the development of a new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) and a consultation will issue later this year.

The PSO Levy is a charge on all electricity customers without exception and is determined by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER). The legal basis for the PSO levy and its method of calculation by the CER are set out in Regulations made under the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 (S.I. 217 of 2002). The total amounts spent, and details by category, such as the amounts for peat, renewables and security of supply plant, for each of the past five years, as calculated by the CER, are already available in the public domain. The CER publishes these details in annual PSO Levy Decision papers at www.cer.ie. The latest proposed decision paper for the 2016/2017 period can be found here: http://www.cer.ie/docs/001074/CER16152%20PSO%20Levy%202016-17%20Proposed%20Decision%20Paper.pdf 

The following table shows the total amount for the PSO levy for each of the last five years.  The second table shows a breakdown of the PSO levy for each of the last five years. All figures are taken directly from the PSO levy Decision Papers available at www.cer.ie.

Other costs include the administration costs for all PSO parties, the associated R-Factor for all PSO parties in the previous PSO period, and a small correction for interest relating to the previous PSO levy period. From 2014/15 the CER changed the way data is presented and as such the R-Factor for each category is included in the figure given and figures are given in millions to one decimal place.