Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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74. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to provide details of the number of homes that have a smart meter installed on a county-by-county basis; the number of those homes who have signed up for a smart tariff on a county-by-county basis; the cost to date of the smart meter roll-out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37276/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The National Smart Metering Programme will roll out and install 2.4 million meters by 2024 and in the process make available new products and services to energy consumers. It is co-ordinated by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) with ESB Networks (ESBN) delivering the electricity meter rollout.

The meter rollout is taking place on a phased basis, with around 10,000 meters installed each week. The total number of smart meters installed at present is over 1.42 million. The focus to date is on, replacing single phase, 24 hour register meters. The replacement of Day/Night meters and 24 hour register 3 phase meters is due to begin in Q4 2023.

ESBN plan smart meter installations across its planner group network; meter exchanges started in five planner groups at the end of 2023 and since February 2023 exchanges have been occurring in every group nationwide. The following is the geographic breakdown of the installation process, as of 1st September 2023:

The investment spend up to June 2023 totalled €527m, with the total cost of the 6-year rollout is estimated to be approximately €1.2bn.

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) monitors the uptake of smart tariffs across the retail electricity market, and provided the following figures as of end of April 2023:

• Customers availing of smart data services: 181,094 (14.2% of those then with smart meters)
• Customers on a ‘time of use’ tariff: 94,061 (7.4% of those then with smart meters)
• As the rollout of the National Smart Metering Programme is co-ordinated by CRU and the ESBN, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications does not maintain oversight on the day-to-day of Smart Metering. In terms of more detailed area specific information on the National Smart Metering Programme, CRU provides a dedicated email address for Oireachtas members, at oireachtas@cru.ie for timely direct reply.