103. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment his plans to discontinue payments for excess electricity exported to the grid by domestic solar PV users; the assessment that has been made of the impact on households that installed solar panels without battery storage; whether such households will qualify for a proposed standalone home battery grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter [66709/26]

The electricity and gas retail markets in Ireland operate within a European Union regulatory regime wherein electricity and gas markets are commercial, liberalised, and competitive. Operating within this overall EU framework, responsibility for the regulation of the electricity and gas markets is solely a matter for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) which was assigned responsibility for the regulation of the Irish electricity and gas markets following the enactment of the Electricity Regulation Act, 1999. The CRU provides a dedicated email address for Oireachtas members, which enables them to raise questions on general energy regulatory matters with the CRU at oireachtas@cru.ie for timely direct reply.

In line with long standing policy on deregulating price setting, the CRU ended its regulation of retail prices in the electricity market in 2011, and in the gas market in 2014. Price setting by electricity suppliers, including remuneration for microgeneration is a commercial and operational matter for the companies concerned.

The CRU published a decision on an interim enabling framework for the Clean export Guarantee (CEG) on 1 December 2021. This decision outlined the interim arrangements for the implementation of the CEG, including eligibility criteria and remuneration methodology. In June 2024 the CRU published its decision paper Clean Export Guarantee: Enduring Arrangements to Remunerate Customers for Microgeneration Exports. That paper sets out  changes to the interim arrangements that were in place for microgeneration.

That decision includes improvements in the level of service for customers with microgeneration, such as:

• more regular payments to customers for the electricity they export to the grid;

• clearer information from suppliers on the details of the payments that customers receive for the electricity they export to the grid; and

• suppliers having clearer information on their websites about their export tariffs.

In relation the development of tariffs under the interim CEG arrangements, the CRU set out in its decision paper of June 2024 that it is of the view that the competitive approach, whereby suppliers set their own competitive export tariffs, has functioned well and will continue.