More than 20,000 people could be selling power to grid next year, regulator says

More than 20,000 people could be paid from next summer to send electricity into the national grid from home solar panels, under plans to encourage customers to become “more active” in consuming, storing and generating energy.

Measures from industry regulators to promote the “microgeneration” of renewable electricity will also benefit the owners of micro-hydro and micro-wind systems for producing power.

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities plan, details of which have been published, aims to pay people for exporting green energy surplus to their requirements into the national network. It holds out the prospect of consumers receiving some return from installing often costly systems that curb their own carbon emissions.

The commission, which oversees the electricity sector, expects suppliers to have data on the amount of power that “renewables self-consumers” send into the grid by the end of June.

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“Customers can expect an initial payment from their suppliers within a reasonable time thereafter,” it said. Some suppliers may provide a credit.

The move comes alongside a drive to drive to deploy electronic smart metering throughout the State by 2025, making it easier to quantify how much power customers provide for the grid. The amount sent in by customers without such meters will be estimated until they receive them.

It comes as the industry struggles to meet rising demand for power. Regulators and the Government have taken steps in recent weeks to procure new gas generation, curtail new data centres and prolong using coal and oil generation, all while building up industrial scale renewable energy infrastructure.

The price of microgeneration power will be determined by market forces, under measures cast as an interim solution in anticipation of an enduring policy being finalised by December 2022.

“These arrangements will provide suppliers with flexibility to provide dynamic pricing to incentivise efficient micro-generation and consumption decisions which consumers can benefit from (e.g. by exporting more energy during high demand periods when prices may be higher than average),” the regulator said.

Suppliers will be free to set their own tariff once it exceeds a floor of zero euro cents per kilowatt hour of electricity. Still, the regulator “may reconsider” whether a floor is appropriate depending on the tariffs set by suppliers in the first 12 months.

“Currently, the vast majority of electricity customers with microgeneration installed do not receive a payment for the excess electricity exported to the grid from their homes or premises,” said the CRU.

“The implementation of the measures set out in this decision paper will ensure that electricity customers who generate renewable electricity to meet their own demand but who are exporting some excess electricity on to the grid are receiving fair remuneration for their exported electricity.

“These export payments will be of benefit to more than 20,000 existing electricity customers who have installed renewable generation and will provide remuneration at market value to consumers who install renewable generation into the future for their excess electricity.”

The regulator said the interim arrangements will be replaced in 2025 once smart meters are installed in all parts of the State. “At that time, the remuneration will be based on the metered export data from smart meters and will be fully integrated with centralised retail and wholesale market systems.”