Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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460. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the current and planned measures his Department is undertaking to allow private persons and small-scale businesses to sell electricity they have generated into the national grid. [43963/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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My Department is currently developing a new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) which will be designed to assist Ireland in meeting its renewable energy contribution to EU-wide targets out to 2030. The new RESS will provide pathways for delivering on the 2015 Energy White Paper commitment to ensure communities and citizens are at the centre of the future energy transition in Ireland. Communities are effectively being designed into the fabric of the new scheme and a comprehensive assessment of polices and support measures to increase community ownership from renewable electricity projects has been undertaken. The most effective policies to increase community ownership and participation in renewable electricity projects have been assessed and examined within an Irish context.

Examples of some of these policies include a mandatory requirement for all renewable electricity projects seeking financial support through the new scheme to offer investment and/or ownership opportunities to the local community; the facilitation of grid access for community-led projects; a ring fencing of capacity (MW) for community-led projects; and the establishment of a national community benefits register. Opportunities for smaller scale projects under a variety of local ownership models to get support will also be provided. Furthermore, the Scheme will establish a network of trusted intermediaries who will act as independent facilitators between communities and developers to support community participation in renewable energy projects.

Micro generation, which typically involves an element of self-consumption and the selling of excess electricity to the grid, was also appraised as part of the RESS economic assessment. The analysis identified a number of challenges that may need to be addressed before a support scheme for micro generation can be developed. These include amongst others, a reform of network charges, an assessment of the distributional impact of such a policy decision on the PSO (cost burden sharing), and development of a fair tariff for exported electricity taking the benefits of self-consumption into account. This approach is in line with experience from other EU member states who have attempted to introduce supports for micro generation.

I am committed to further exploring opportunities for supporting micro generation, as I believe that micro-generation will have an important role in Ireland’s transition to a carbon free economy, in assisting Ireland meet its renewable electricity targets, and increasing social acceptance of and promoting renewable energy projects right across the country. I have asked the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), on behalf of my Department to facilitate a workshop on micro generation, and this will take place this week. All relevant stakeholders have been invited to participate with the end goal being the development of a policy position on how best to support micro generation in Ireland.

A public consultation on the design principles of the proposed new RESS was launched on 4 September and submissions are invited from the public. All submissions will be considered and following on from this final public consultation, a design proposal will be brought to Government for approval. Full details of the consultation are available on my Department’s website at: .