Private Wires Bill must be climate‑proofed, committee warns

Call to assess legislation for impact on emissions and household electricity bills amid concerns about benefits for large energy users, such as data centres

The committee has raised concerns that large energy users such as data centres could connect outside of public networks while still depending on it as a back-up, which could increase emissions and shift costs to households and small businesses. File picture: Getty Images

Private wires legislation must be climate-proofed and analysed for the impact it will have on household energy bills, an Oireachtas committee has said.

The Joint Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy has made almost 50 recommendations on the Private Wires Bill, which the Government says will accelerate investment in electricity infrastructure.

The legislation would allow private development of electricity wires in specific circumstances.

The committee has raised concerns that large energy users such as data centres could connect outside of public networks while still depending on it as a back-up, which could increase emissions and shift costs to households and small businesses.

“Members expressed concern that the legislation is developed primarily for large energy users, insofar as it will optimise the delivery of renewable energy to data centres,” states the report.

“This will also deny the provision of such energy to households and wider society.” 

The Government has said this will aid the build-out of the country's electricity grid, while simultaneously accelerating the roll-out of renewable energy and electricity storage solutions.

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“In this way, private development of electricity infrastructure will unlock new investment and alleviate grid constraints,” it said.

A regulatory impact analysis published by the Government conceded that it creates risks that system operators will not be able to recover the costs associated with the national grid build-out. 

It also warns that “other customers” may find themselves providing a cross subsidy to the private wire operator but that the energy regulator should take steps to mitigate this.

Committee recommendations

The committee recommended that fairness to ordinary households and other network users must be a “central design principle” of the private wires regime.

“Private wires should not create a structure in which some large users reduce their visible use of the public network while continuing to benefit from its availability and resilience, with the residual costs then falling more heavily on households and other commercial customers,” it said.

It called for a full tariff assessment led by the energy regulator to analyse the impact on household bills, grid financing, and tariff methodology before the regime becomes operational.

The committee recommended that the framework be firmly anchored in our climate laws and the legally binding carbon budgets.

Any private wires should only be permitted in a framework that is “demonstrably climate-aligned, renewables-focused, fair in cost allocation, protective of scarce grid capacity, and subject to early review”.

“This bill should strongly assert that a private wire shall not connect to, or be used for the transmission of electricity from, any generating plant that is reliant on fossil fuel,” it said.