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The Private Wires Bill 2025 - only the General Scheme of the Bill has been published to date. This was submitted to the Joint Committee for review.
The Bill would seek to more effectively aid National Grid development (with increased demand for electricity), and private wires are envisaged to be used in four ways:
- A connection from a single generator to a single customer (e.g. connecting a wind or solar farm to one customer)
- Hybrid connections (a wind or solar farm sharing a national grid connection with another generator or a battery installation owned by different companies)
- On-street charging of electric vehicles for domestic use.
- Firms who self-supply electricity being able to provide electricity to a neighboring customer, where the line does not have to cross land owned by a third party.
The report contains some interesting suggestions, points and recommendations, for instance:
- The Electricity Regulation Act already enables direct lines (functionally similar to the proposed private wires), but this may need to be developed given the current and anticipated pressure on the natonal grid.
- There is concern that large industry, in particular data centres, which are extremely heavy electricity users, could be the main beneficiaries of private wire legislation and indeed, unless all renewable generators are connected to the National Grid, which would achieve a balance of supply, there is a fear that this electricity would effectively be prioritised for large energy users. Furthermore, it could facilitate additional energy demand, particularly from data centres, rather than all available renewable resources being used to decarbonise the national grid.
- it is key for the national interest that the National Grid not be undermined by use of private wires (noting that customers of private wires will nonetheless rely on the National Grid for back-up) and that the overall grid tariff structure may need review and overhaul.
- One interesting and currently newsworthy purpose of the legislation would be, as above, to authorise either local authorities (which the Committee preferred) or the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) to authorise the use of private wires for on-street domestic electric vehicle (EV) charging, including potentially by way of a road opening licence.
Readers may be aware of the news this week that some houseowners in a Cairns Homes Development in Lucan, County Dublin, have apparently been told by the developer that installation by those house owners of roadside EV charging facilities would delay the estates being taken in charge by the local authority. Given the clear Government policy to accelerate the proportion of EVs in the national fleet so as to advance decarbonization, hopefully this forthcoming legislation will provide for a mechanism for increased EV roadside charging while allowing new estates (again, the provision of new housing being a top Government priority) to be taken in charge.
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