The State should spend €2 billion a year up to 2030 boosting the national electricity grid to aid efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, industry figures say.
The Electricity Association of Ireland (EAI) argues that cutting carbon dioxide output requires increased use of renewables and using more electricity to power industry, heating and transport. It will call on Thursday for the State to invest €2 billion annually up to 2030 on reinforcing and renewing the national electricity grid to enable this to happen.
The group, which represents electricity suppliers across the island of Ireland, warns that otherwise, the State will miss agreed climate action targets. It notes that the Climate Change Advisory Council recently predicted that the Republic could face up to €8 billion in EU fines if this happens.
In a shopping list due to be presented at a conference in Dublin on Thursday, the EAI warns that electrification of industry has stagnated. The association maintains that in tandem with electrification of industry, the country needs to accelerate the rate at which it increases renewable electricity use. Suppliers also want a review of the Capacity Remuneration Mechanism, the system that pays them for ensuring that there are enough power stations to meet electricity demand, particularly at peak times.
The association urged policymakers to revamp the current investment framework to ensure that it can provide the amount of capital needed to deploy new technology.
Its chief executive officer, Dara Lynott, argued that the electricity industry had to cut carbon emissions before the rest of society, but the technology needed required significant spending and took a long time to build. “Ireland must adjust its investment strategies and frameworks to attract the necessary capital for post-2030 technologies,” he said.
Mr Lynott predicted that this would require a level of spending not previously seen in the country.
“A comprehensive overhaul of how energy, system services and capacity markets interrelate is needed,” he said. “Prioritising short-term cost savings over long-term capacity needs could hinder decarbonisation goals and ultimately increase the cost for consumers,” Mr Lynott added.
Declan Hughes, secretary general of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and Ian Snowden, permanent secretary of Northern Ireland’s Department for the Economy, are due to address the association’s conference on Thursday.
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