PRESS RELEASE: Monday, 14 September 2026
Irish Rural Link wants families to get first refusal on the wind power they have already paid for, a text to tell them when it is cheap, and a free plug-in battery in every home instead of the next electricity credit
Irish Rural Link is going to the Ploughing with something different: instead of another credit gone by the next bill, a plug-in battery for every home, first refusal on the wind power households already pay for, and a text when it is cheap.
It has been a bad week for bills. SSE Airtricity, Bord Gáis Energy and Energia all announced October increases, and every supplier in the market has put prices up this year. In the first six months of the year, 13.2% of Ireland’s available wind power was switched off because the grid could not take it, enough to run 667,000 homes. Households paid for that wind three times over. They underwrote the contracts that built it, they pay for the wires, and they pay a levy on every kWh they use for a grid that cannot use the power it has, mostly to keep gas plants running so the wind can be switched off. That levy is €790 million this year, about €84 a home, and €35 million of it is paid to wind and solar farms for electricity that was thrown away.
Irish Rural Link is asking the Government and the regulator for a right of first refusal. When there is more wind than the country can use and the wholesale price drops below zero, households should get that electricity for no more than 5 cents a kWh, automatically through the smart meter, with a text the evening before telling them when. If suppliers can text people about arrears, they can text them when electricity is cheap.
And for Budget 2027, one idea in place of another credit. In May, Lidl started selling a 2.24kWh home battery in Germany for €299. It is about the size of a microwave and sits beside the fridge. Plug the fridge into it, plug it into the wall, set the clock, and the fridge runs on night-rate power for good. That is worth about €100 a year on a typical plan and up to €250 on a night-rate window, so it pays for itself in about three years and keeps going for fifteen. In a storm, it keeps the fridge, lights, router and phones going for up to twelve hours. Two million of them cost about €600 million once, double Ireland’s storage, and at 500 watts each across the four peak hours take a gigawatt off the peak, more than any power station in the country.
Ireland cannot keep paying for energy the way it does now: credits that vanish into the next bill, gas plants paid to keep running so the wind can be switched off, and imported gas that sets the price of every kWh. The State spent €755 million on fuel supports this spring and over €3 billion on credits since 2022, and none of it is left. The Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund has up to €630 million a year set aside for projects that cut fossil fuel use. Irish Rural Link is asking for one year of it, and for the 800-watt plug-in rule due this month, so the batteries are legal on day one.
Briain Smyth, Chief Executive of Irish Rural Link, said:
“Everybody in rural Ireland has driven past a wind farm on the windiest day of the year and seen the blades standing still. They are paying for that three times over and never getting a kWh of it. Give them first refusal on what they already own, and text them when it is going cheap. The energy transition is an asset households have already paid for, and it is time they received the dividend.”
“The war in the Gulf and the price of gas are outside our control. What is inside our control is how we use the grid we have already paid for. We have the smart meters. Now we need the smart grid to make them work for Ireland. We can’t keep spending money on energy credits, on paying gas plants to run so we can switch the wind off, and on imported gas. A €200 credit is gone in one bill. A €300 battery saves €100 to €250 a year for fifteen years, keeps the fridge running in a storm, and two million of them become part of the grid. We have spent billions on the symptoms. The cure is on a supermarket shelf for €299. Don’t give the household another temporary credit. Give it the thing that makes the electricity cheaper.”
Read more here: Irish Rural Link Press Release
