What is it?
Northern Ireland has a target of delivering 80% of its electricity by 2030 from Renewable sources which was set out in the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022. Currently about half of our electricity is generated from Renewables and Northern Ireland currently has no open schemes designed to encourage the installation of renewable technologies. The Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) is poised to change this.
How would it work?
The Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) will follow a Contracts for Difference structure within which companies will bid to develop renewable energy projects. Projects will hopefully incorporate a variety of technologies like onshore wind, solar PV and perhaps new emerging technologies like tidal energy. It is worth noting that within some of these projects there will be some consideration for Battery energy storage to take advantage of low demand but high production and vice versa. Battery storage (at project level) is also important to consider due to the intermittent nature of some renewable technologies (wind for example) and the fact that solar only generates during daylight hours. Battery storage allows for a balancing of this demand and potentially enabling a steadier stream of supply.
In practice what does this mean?
The Contracts for Difference structure is supported by potential investors as it is already widely understood by market participants who have used similar in successful schemes both in the UK and internationally. The auction mechanism would be held every 1-2 years and include ‘pots’ for each technology type which allow bidders to propose new projects to bring online. Overall the idea is to ensure the development of new projects, that generators get an expected price for electricity and that consumers pay a fair price for this sustainable and secure source of electricity.
At this stage there is a High Level Design in place for the scheme with the possibility of the first Auctions happening in 2026. Some of these details may change (we are currently waiting on the final design of the scheme). Northern Ireland had been ahead in its race to achieve the 80% target however this development stagnated in the last few years and our hope is the Renewable Energy Support Scheme will be one mechanism to bring us back on target.
Author: Kevin Graham