IRISH MEPS ARE backing a plan by the European Commission that they hope will go a long way towards easing electricity bills, by massively expanding grid infrastructure and creating an ‘energy union’ across Europe.

However, it’s still expected to be some time before the work is likely to bring down prices, due to the wide-ranging structural nature of the upgrades. These plans include what are called ‘energy highways’.

The first such project will see multiple offshore wind farms connected for use by Germany and Denmark.

When complete it’s hoped it will transform the offshore wind in the Baltic Sea from a national resource into shared European power, with the ambition to do similar for the rest of the EU as a way of bringing prices down.

The EU hopes this and other work will start bringing down electricity prices, which it previously found were two to three times higher than in the US.

Officials and politicians believe the long-term reforms are essential to disconnect electricity costs from volatile gas prices, which suffered especially following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Gas is connected to the price of electricity because gas-fired power plants often set the marginal price in the wholesale market.

Irish prices outpacing west EU

In Ireland, recent research showed that Irish electricity prices are dramatically outpacing what customers and businesses in the western EU are facing.

On average Irish households pay around €360 more per year than counterparts in western EU states.

Interconnectivity is a critical part of bringing prices down, eventually, according to Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews.

“There are a lot of great plans out there frankly but for the guy who is looking at his electricity bill this isn’t going to come to fruition very quickly,” Andrews told The Journal.

Andrews – who sits on the European Parliament’s energy committee – said that Ireland suffers from “having zero interconnectivity” with the EU, instead being reliant on the UK at present.

“We can only buy from one particular source which is why Ireland has such a high electricity prices,” the Dublin MEP added.

This reliance is due to Ireland having little in the way of indigenous energy sources, with over 70% of our gas imported from the UK according to Bonkers.ie.

Dublin MEP Barry Andrews European Parliament Multimedia Centre European Parliament Multimedia Centre

Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly agreed with the diagnosis, outlining to The Journal that the solution lies partly in developing renewables, including offshore and offshore wind, alongside solar.

This will help ease Ireland’s reliance on the UK, which Kelly said makes it “very vulnerable” when it comes to prices for households and businesses.

“The whole plan over time will reduce dependency on fossil fuels and develop renewables – it will take some time but a lot is happening already.”

This work includes the government’s announcement of €13 billion for the offshore wind project called Tonne Nua off the south-east coast, which it’s proposed will power nearly 1 million homes.

Other majors projects that aim to reduce Ireland’s energy vulnerabilities include the Greenlink Interconnector subsea and underground cable linking Wexford to Wales that became operational last year, and the Celtic Interconnector undersea system linking the electricity grids from Cork to France.

Critically, Ireland South MEP Kelly said, the Celtic Interconnector will also provide a direct link to continental Europe.

Elsewhere, the other major energy project moving ahead on an EU-wide basis revolves around what’s known as the Grids Package. Published last December by the European Commission, the €584 billion plan aims to accelerate the modernisation and expansion of electricity and hydrogen, while overcoming bottlenecks holding back renewable energy integration by streamlining permits.

Von der Leyen’s ‘energy union’

At a speech before the European Parliament in Strasbourg this month, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said there was a need to figure how to “make Europe move faster” and create an ‘energy union’ covering the entire bloc. “To lower and stabilise costs, we need the infrastructure for a true energy union,” the Commission chief said.