Work on a long-delayed cross-Border power line that could cut €150 million a year from electricity bills will begin next year, Minister for Climate, Environment and Energy, Darragh O’Brien pledged on Wednesday.
Planning and political controversies have delayed construction of the North-South Interconnector, a high voltage electricity line running from Co Meath to Co Tyrone that was first proposed 20 years ago.
O’Brien said on Wednesday that work should begin on the project next year as it now has full planning permission.
“It’s going to be built,” the minister stressed. He told a conference that the power line would be subject to “no more reviews”, pointing that four studies had weighed whether it was possible to run the line underground rather than on pylons.
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“It will deliver reductions in energy bills of up to €150 million per annum,” O’Brien added.
He was speaking at the publication of a report by think tank, Trifecta Ireland, showing that regulations, the network and policy account for more of Irish consumers’ energy bills than the actual cost of electricity.
The Republic has the most expensive electricity in the EU, with households paying 40 cent a kilowatt hour for their power, 40 per cent more than the European average.
Trifecta Ireland has identified 17 measures that could help reduce those costs and cut electricity bills by 2030, according to the organisation’s chief executive, Conall Bolger.
