Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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572. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the steps being taken by his Department to ensure that small micro generation projects such as the gas extraction at Kyletalesha landfill at Portlaoise are connected to the national grid. [28662/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The commitments in the Energy White Paper, published in December 2015, include facilitating access to the national grid for designated renewable electricity projects. The regulation of the electricity market is a matter for the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) and I have no function in the matter.

Any party that wishes to connect to the national grid must apply to the system operator (either the Transmission System Operator, EirGrid, or the Distribution System Operator, ESB Networks) and the system operator then issues a connection offer based on the policy set by the CER. This policy is captured under two broad processing approaches: the Group Processing Approach (GPA) and the non-Group Processing Approach (non-GPA).

The GPA has been designated for larger, renewable and conventional generators. Under the GPA, system operators issue connection offers to these generators in batches, called "gates". The last iteration was Gate 3.

The non-GPA is the process to connect small, renewable and low carbon generators that fulfil public interest criteria. The CER has decided  (CER/09/099 – available on www.cer.ie) that the following list of technology or classes of technology exhibit public interest benefits and are, therefore, preapproved for processing outside of the GPA: Bioenergy, Combined Heat and Power,  Autoproducers, Hydro, Ocean, Wave, Solar, Geothermal and Experimental/Emerging Technology.

It is my understanding that electricity generators (including micro-generation) eligible to be processed outside of the GPA will receive a non-GPA connection offer provided that all technical requirements for connecting to the grid are fulfilled by the applicant. The process for connecting a micro-generator is detailed on the ESB Networks website ()

While I cannot comment on an individual Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (REFIT) application, I can confirm that it is normal practice that a REFIT applicant would liaise directly with officials in my Department to receive updates on the status of any application, and I have asked my officials to follow up with the REFIT applicant referred to by the Deputy.

The CER consultation document of December 2015 on a Review of Connection and Grid Access Policy (CER/15/284)addressed the question of access to the grid. Responses to the consultation were published by the CER on 10 March 2016.

My Department is working on the development of a new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS). Exploring the scope to provide support for renewable micro-generation technologies will  form part of the my Department's on-going analysis to underpin the scheme. The introduction of any new scheme - including the overall costs and technologies to be supported – will ultimately be subject to Government approval and State aid clearance from the European Commission. Over the coming months there will be an additional public consultation phase on the design of the new scheme, the details of which will be advertised on the Department’s website www.dccae.gov.ie.