The Government has approved the General Scheme for the Private Wires Bill 2026 (the Scheme), a landmark legislative step which will amend the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 to facilitate the development of private electricity wires in specific circumstances.

The Scheme, which follows and is to be read with the Private Wires Policy Statement prepared by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment (DCEE) earlier this year, provides for the building out of Private Wires in the following circumstances:

• to permit a private wire linking a single user of electricity (such as a data centre) to a separate generation asset (such as a wind or solar farm). Such a connection may also include storage technologies;
• to facilitate hybrid grid connections. This involves a wind or solar farm, which is owned by one company, sharing a grid connection with another generation or battery installation that is owned by another firm;
• to allow on-street charging solutions for Electric Vehicles (EVs); and
• to allow a customer that self-supplies electricity to provide electricity to a separate customer in a contiguous premises.

Landmark Shift for Ireland’s Electricity Sector

Private wires are electricity lines which are both privately built and privately owned. In Ireland, ESB Networks is the designated Transmission Asset Owner by law. This means that ESB Networks owns the entire onshore electricity grid and ESB Networks is the only entity that owns electricity lines between a generator and an electricity customer.

Following extensive consultation with industry, the Government has decided that, in future, private developers should be able to build and own electricity lines in certain circumstances. This has been highlighted by the Government as an important step in its recent Climate Action Plans and is a specified as an “Action” in the Government’s recent Accelerating Instructure Report and Action Plan (which is considered in more detail here).

This will bring the position in Ireland closer to that in Northern Ireland where private wires are permitted and Belfast Airport, which has a direct connection to a 5MW solar farm, is a prominent example in this regard.

Drafting of the General Scheme

The development of this General Scheme involved collaboration between DCEE, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), ESB Networks and EirGrid as well as an extensive public consultation and an extensive Regulatory Impact Assessment.

Noteworthy Initial Drafting

• Heads 4 and 5: Safety
  Provide that CRU will be responsible for the regulation of the activities of those who are granted private wires permissions and licenses. CRU will also regulate the electrical safety of Private Wires and are to set the safety standards and inspection procedures which may require consultation with ESB Networks and EirGrid.
• Heads 6 and 7: Licensing
  Among other things, Head 7 outlines the conditions for the CRU granting:
  • licences for direct connections from generation or storage to customers; and
  • permissions for shared grid connections and contiguous premises supply, respectively.

It also provides that local authorities will have the power to authorise wires for EV charging and clarifies that Private Wires licence/permission holders will be exempt from the obligations of the transmission or distribution system operator.

• Head 8: 10-Year Review
  The Minister is to review the legislation within 10 years.

Implications for the Energy Sector

The development of Private Wires legislation will aid the modernisation of Ireland’s electricity grid, a primary national concern which has been underlined by a commitment to allocate EirGrid and ESB €3.5 billion up to 2030.

A Private Wires system will facilitate industrial demand users and renewable generators to streamline connections, to access electricity faster, and to potentially reduce costs. Large energy users such as data centres may seek to source electricity directly from dedicated wind, solar or other renewable energy sources. Further, developers of EV infrastructure will be able to install private wires in dense urban settings where public network upgrades lag.

Next Steps

Detailed drafting of the Private Wires Bill will now begin and DCEE will continue to work closely with the CRU, ESB Networks and EirGrid in this regard.

Contributed by Alex Needham