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					</table><p>The Government of Ireland announced a package with measures to mitigate the hike in electricity bills while ensuring a secure power supply to households and businesses across the country.</p>
<p>Under the package, the government would ready the backup power generation capacity for secure electricity supply, with the provision of funds to address the risks in supply during winters.</p>
<p>The Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy (beyond those announced earlier in the year) would be altered, resulting in savings for domestic power bills for the PSO year starting October 2022.</p>
<p>A dip in the relative cost of renewable energy compared to fossil fuel generation also reflects the reduction in the PSO levy.</p>
<p>Levy payments are calculated based on estimated generation and wholesale electricity market prices for the year ahead. The regulatory body responsible for uninterrupted power supply, the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (<a href="https://www.cru.ie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CRU</a>), estimates and certifies the levy annually, aligning with relevant legislation.</p>
<p>Earlier, the government announced that the levy would go to zero from October 1, 2022, leading to an annual saving of €52 (~$54.61), excluding the value-added tax (VAT).</p>
<p>In another announcement, the government said the proposed PSO levy would decrease from €263 million (~$276.42 million) for 2021-2022 to an estimated figure of minus €408 million (~$428.37 million) for the forthcoming year. The reduction would lead to a rebate for domestic household bills, equating to an indicative annual saving of €75 (~$78.80) on a typical home’s power bill from next winter.</p>
<p>The Commission has already arranged procurement of additional temporary emergency generation capacity for the winters of 2023 to 2024 and 2025 to 2026 and has directed the country’s state-owned power grid <a href="https://www.eirgridgroup.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EirGrid</a> to undertake measures to procure the backup capacity. By July end, the CRU will issue a final decision on the exact PSO levy applicable from October 2022 to September 2023.</p>
<p>The government said that the package would provide EirGrid with an increased borrowing limit of €3 billion (~$3.31 million) to strengthen Ireland’s national grid as part of ‘Shaping Our Electricity Future’ strategy and deliver power to the Celtic (Ireland-France) Interconnector.</p>
<p>Bord na Móna, a semi-state company, will be provided with an increased borrowing limit of €650 million (~$683.43 million) to drive a higher deployment of indigenous renewable energy across the Midlands and beyond as part of its Brown to Green strategy.</p>
<p>Recently, EirGrid <a href="https://mercomindia.com/ireland-awards-414-mw-wind-1534-mw-solar-projects/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> the final auction results to deploy 1.9 GW of clean energy capacity under the second phase of its Renewable Electricity Support Scheme. The capacity awarded in the auction includes 414 MW of onshore wind and 1,534 MW of solar, with an annual output capacity estimated for these projects at 2,748 GWh.</p>
<p>A Global Wind Energy Council report recently <a href="https://mercomindia.com/gwec-next-wave-floating-offshore-wind/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">highlighted</a> Ireland’s attractive floating offshore wind market if the transmission grid and the country’s port infrastructure are upgraded. The report highlighted that the country has the potential to produce 5 GW of power generation capacity by 2030 from offshore wind energy alone.</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gourav Mishra</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
<p><img class="alignleft" style="border-radius: 50%;height: 50px;margin-top: -4px;border: 1px solid #00b451" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WhatsApp-Image-2022-04-06-at-6.37.25-PM-1-1.jpeg" width="50" /></p>
<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gourav,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gourav.</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WhatsApp-Image-2022-04-06-at-6.37.25-PM-1-1.jpeg" width="89" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gourav</a> is a staff reporter with Mercom India with over six years of experience in various roles with NewsX, The New Indian Express, IBTimes India, and U.S., Republic, and Analytics India Magazine. Gourav has a Master&#8217;s in journalism from Jain University, Bengaluru. <a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gourav Mishra</a></div>
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Ireland’s Electricity Package Will Help Households Save €75 on Power Bills Annually

<p>Underwriters Laboratories <a href="https://www.ul.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">(UL</a>), a global safety science company, announced that it had launched a testing service facility for solar inverter manufacturers in India.</p>
<p>According to its press release, UL has expanded its Bureau of Indian Standards (<a href="https://bis.gov.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BIS</a>) recognized testing service facility in Bengaluru to support manufacturers to adhere to the standards prescribed by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (<a href="https://mnre.gov.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MNRE</a>).</p>
<p>According to MNRE’s quality control order, solar PV inverters are required to have their products tested from a BIS recognized laboratory.</p>
<p>In August 2019, the MNRE had <a href="https://mercomindia.com/mnre-approves-series-guidelines-solar-inverters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">approved</a> the series guidelines for grouping solar inverters. These guidelines were for conducting tests in laboratories for the implementation of quality control order that was introduced in 2017. As per the guidelines, the manufacturers will have to submit a declaration about the series of their products while submitting the samples of a particular series for testing.</p>
<p>The new testing services by UL are now accessible for commercial, industrial, and residential application projects at the company’s Bengaluru facility, according to its press statement. The laboratory can test solar PV inverters with a rating of up to 50 kW with two independent test set-ups, one is for low power ratings up to 10 kW, and the other is for high power ratings up to 50 kW.</p>
<p>According to UL’s press statement, The testing facility at Bengaluru is accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). It is also recognized by the BIS to conduct testing of solar PV inverters.</p>
<p>Last year, UL <a href="https://mercomindia.com/ul-solar-module-mobile-test-lab/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced</a> the launch of its first-ever mobile solar PV testing laboratory in New Delhi. The lab’s function was to identify, evaluate, and replace modules directly at the solar project site, which could help solar project owners and operators to capitalize on the production and reduce the downtime at the project site, according to the company.</p>
<p>Inverter manufacturers have to gain clarity regarding the ambiguous BIS certification process. The unavailability of labs, lack of testing facilities and workforce, unreasonable costs of testing, absence of series guidelines, and confusion regarding MNRE notifications were some of the issues that have made the compliance of the order “<em>Solar Photovoltaics Systems, Devices and Component Goods Order 2017”</em> extremely difficult. Through several interviews with inverter suppliers, Mercom <a href="https://mercomindia.com/solar-quality-tests-good-fronius-india-interview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">found</a> out that the cost of BIS certification is also a cause of concern for the inverter suppliers apart from the time-taking process.</p>
<p>In April 2020, the MNRE <a href="https://mercomindia.com/mnre-prepares-blueprint-streamlining-technical-specifications-solar-inverters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">issued</a> draft guidelines for standards regarding the technical specification for solar grid-tied inverters. The ministry introduced relevant standards covering safety, efficiency, environmental, and islanding prevention measures tests for utility-interconnected PV inverters.</p>
<p>Image credit: GoodWe</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/staff/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Staff</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"></div></div><div class="clearfix"></div></div></div>

UL Launches BIS Recognized Testing Service for Solar Inverter Manufacturers in India

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