With significant media coverage regarding our EU renewables targets (and the fact that we are missing them by a country mile), attention is drawn to how we reduce our dependence on fossils fuels in Ireland.
The advent of I-SEM caused a certain amount of consternation in Ireland, as the primary renewable energy support scheme, REFIT (Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff), had its reference price changed from the old SEM System Marginal Price (SMP) to a new, I-SEM REFIT reference price.
The REFIT scheme is funded by customers in Ireland under the Public Services Obligation (PSO) levy. Interestingly, the REFIT pay-out is not paid to the eligible renewables generator directly, but to a supply company with which they have an agreement.