Barry Cowen: Government has done nothing about wider energy issues

Inside the myriad of agencies of the Government, the parcel keeps getting passed around, writes Barry Cowen 

On paper, it appears we are making progress as renewable power generation now makes up about 40% of energy generated. That is mostly made up of inland wind supplies. What the Government failed to do was to have sufficient battery storage projects alongside such progress.

While Michael O'Leary's Ryanair outburst regarding Dublin Airport and drones is the usual over-the-top stuff, he is not wrong that Government needs to speed up its decision-making processes. Nowhere is this more obvious than in energy issues.

ESB continues showing a remarkable deafness to the needs of the consumer. By taking a Stalinist view that it will not be moved on prices despite 100-year-old pensioners getting €1,000 bills they cannot pay, ESB has shown it and its leadership is no longer fit for purpose.

What has the Government done about it even though it owns the company? Nothing, it would appear. And it has done nothing about the wider energy issues either. Prior to the war in Ukraine and still, the Irish wholesale energy market is dominated, and some would say controlled, by one player, ESB.

Over the last number of years, EirGrid, which is charged with implementing Government policy, has failed in its commitment to bring more competition to the wholesale market. For example, in 2016, four separate auctions that it conducted for a total of around 450MW of renewable projects were won by ESB (at a time when 450MW was lost after the closures of Lanesboro and Shannonbridge). 

ESB had four years to complete the projects. In the four cases, ESB, in year four, withdrew and reneged on all of them, simply paying a nominal penalty to EirGrid for doing so. 

This ensured the national grid remains challenged and that no further competition entered the market. It should not have been tolerated. 

The winter of 2023/2024 could be very problematic, especially now after a fire at Tarbert power station.

Many of the ESB plants are old, expensive to run and maintain, but very profitable in such circumstances for ESB, ensuring expensive wholesale prices and excessively expensive prices for business and households as a result.

In 2021, we were told by EirGrid, due to fears relating to energy security, that emergency generation would be procured in advance of last winter. That never happened either. Indeed, EirGrid had to cancel a process of procurement following interjection by a company that had informed the High Court of unfair competitive practices in such procurement. We have new announcements of such procurements again in recent days. It could be too late.

Inside the myriad of agencies of the Government, the parcel keeps getting passed around. The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, which is supposed to regulate all the players, seems to stand idly by too, while the Government hides behind its agencies saying they are removed from this process despite EirGrid being charged with implementing Government policy.

You would think maybe other Government watchdogs, such as the Competition Authority which includes consumer protection, would bite but they too have done nothing. Neither has the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, or Department of Enterprise. Environment Minister Eamon Ryan appears to control them all.

As another example of Government inaction, take battery storage and offshore wind into account. On paper, it appears we are making progress as renewable power generation now makes up about 40% of energy generated. That is mostly made up of inland wind supplies. What the Government failed to do was to have sufficient battery storage projects alongside such progress. Because when wind blows excessively over and above grids' need, one should be storing that excess which is then available at periods when the wind does not blow. But when that is not the case due to insufficient storage, the grid becomes over-reliant on the gas and coal energy-generating plants.

Offshore wind development, our greatest future asset, remains in chaos with nothing happening. 

The big global players have no clue what Ireland is at, changing the rules on development willy-nilly.

Former Department of the Taoiseach secretary general Dermot McCarthy has done a report on what has gone wrong with energy in Ireland. It was done months ago but remains on Mr Ryan’s desk. I’m told it will be brought to the Government. The latest indicative time for that is May, I’m told, which is wholly inadequate, to say the least.

While the questions surrounding our energy security continue and as we await the McCarthy report on what has gone wrong, the insistence by Mr Ryan that we proceed to electrify transport and heat while ignoring other heat options, such as hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and biogas, is off the wall. 

Why? Because even if consumers could afford electric cars at the rate required, even if homes could afford full deep retrofits, we do not have the energy available to meet such demands. But if HVO and biogas were approved and promoted, many households could afford change and contribute to emissions reductions. Parallel to that, we could be building up our energy delivery capacity.

Some weeks ago when I questioned Mr Ryan in the Dáil about his ongoing rejection of HVO as a recognised renewable heat product, he went on solely about its use as an aviation fuel and did not answer the substantial question. With the greatest respect to the aviation industry, perhaps some of his constituents in Sandymount have jets but none of mine has a plane in the driveway but does want an affordable and real way of contributing to emission reductions, recognising and having to deal with the transition away from solid fuel and kerosene. 

Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen

Such transitions can both allow contributions to emissions reductions by more households and ease the burden on energy supply while infrastructure is being upgraded. That would be good for the climate, the State, and consumers.

We are relying on the same authorities, similar processes and procedures, personnel and leadership to now plan, manage, and deliver what is even an underwhelming ambition regarding the massive potential that can be derived from our offshore wind resources. 

I’m even fearful that was such ambition strengthened and if planning was more timely, the infrastructure to take power inland and distribute it is not at all in place or likely to be. 

We are years behind Scotland in this regard. We have potentially an industry that could be worth €300bn to our country (the size of our economy to date) and many players charged with delivering on such potential are asleep at the wheel, with some not at the wheel at all.

Offshore wind development, our greatest future asset, remains in chaos with nothing happening. 

I’ve raised these issues, concerns, and frustrations with party colleagues and the Government on numerous occasions. I’ve contacted the various bodies mentioned above and indeed the EU Commission. The Government did eventually commission an independent investigation/report into the issues surrounding our inability as a nation to have at our disposal a more secure resource of energy at this time.

I won’t get into the fact that we have a gas field adjacent to Corrib which has an ongoing exploration licence and access to Shell infrastructure to ensure distribution but cannot access the investment required because Mr Ryan will not commit to its usage, so we will continue to see UK gas purchased indefinitely to meet needs of our emergency gas-powered plants planned by the likes of Bord na Mona and a 650MW facility in coming years.

The Government needs to bite the bullet and create a separate Department of Energy or Ireland's reputation as an economy will be shattered. 

As Michael O'Leary would say, time to move on it or move on.

• Barry Cowen is a Fianna Fáil TD for Laois-Offaly.