Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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675. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question No. 536 of 25 October 2016, the amount that has been paid on tariffs to date for the 55%, or 171 MWs, of applicants who have been deemed compliant for support under the REFIT 3 scheme. [3872/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The REFIT 3 (Renewable Energy Feed in Tariff) scheme, which closed at the end of 2015, was designed to incentivise the addition of 310 MW of renewable electricity from biomass technologies to the Irish electricity grid. The overall cost of renewable energy supports is funded through the Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy and published in the annual PSO decision by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER).  The PSO levy is charged to all electricity customers in Ireland.

The CER’s role is to calculate the annual PSO levy and help ensure that the scheme is administered appropriately. Further information on the CER’s role and relevant legislation can be found on the CERs website www.cer.ie. The CER does not publish data on each individual REFIT support scheme or the individual renewable energy projects supported. The CER does publish an aggregate figure for all payments to renewable energy projects via that PSO, which is estimated to be €269.7 million for the PSO period 2016/2017.

The 171 MW figure referred to by the Deputy is only for projects that are compliant with the REFIT 3 scheme and have therefore received a letter of offer from my Department. Not all of these projects are fully operational and exporting energy yet and therefore not all are currently in receipt of payments via the REFIT 3 Scheme. Only the projects listed in the PSO Statutory Instrument published each year are in receipt of payments.  Schedule 5 of  () lists the current REFIT 3 projects in receipt of grant aid.