The Key points of the Carbon Budget are below:

• It will integrate Climate change considerations into the Government’s budgetary policy as they must be into the decision-making process across all sectors of Government
  It will be a clear measure of the progress made each year towards meeting our targets for emission reductions.
  It will help in our efforts to increase public understanding of climate change and the Government’s response
• These include the announcement yesterday by the Minister for Finance of funding for an initial pilot programme to encourage the owners of older housing stock to upgrade the energy performance of their homes and additional funding for a further phase of the highly successful Greener Homes Scheme. The new phase of the scheme, which was launched in October, will promote a new range of additional renewable technologies which are now ready for market and will deliver almost double the emissions savings that will be achieved under the scheme
• I will sign regulations by the end of this month to significantly strengthen the energy efficiency requirements for new homes, to deliver energy and emissions savings of 40% on current standards.
  I will further strengthen the Building Standards in 2010 to achieve a 60% improvement on current levels, and it is my ambition to eventually achieve zero carbon emissions associated with new dwellings.

New smart meters for every home

Energy Minister Eamon Ryan announced that a national programme to install a new smart electricity meter in every home would begin in 2008. The first phase will begin with the installation of 25,000 smart meters in varied geographic locations.

The roll-out of the programme will be coordinated by the Commission for Energy Regulation with input from ESB Networks and Sustainable Energy Ireland.

Minister Ryan: “I have long called for a national smart-metering programme. The commitment is in the Programme for Government and I am delighted to announce its implementation. I intend that nationwide roll-out will be complete in 5 years.

Currently, people do not know how much electricity they are purchasing at any given time of the day, or at what price. Smart meters have been likened to fuel gauges in cars. It is time that people become aware, through a device in their homes, of the electricity they use and how much it will cost.

Smart meters help customers to manage their electricity usage much more efficiently and flexibly. They will help us in reducing both our carbon emissions and electricity bills.

Smart meters have many other benefits. These include better methods of selling power back to the national grid for micro-generators. They also equip electricity suppliers with real-time information. Along with more accurate billing for the customer it means that suppliers and customers can work together to manage demand. This will be of great help to electricity customers and suppliers alike.

The Power of One Street families showed us that the smart use of energy helped saved each family an average of €500 over 6 months. The families also reduced their carbon emissions by an average of 3 tonnes. These are significant savings both for householders’ pockets and for the environment.

Every home in Ireland can now be a Power of One home with the installation of these smart meters.

The CER will kick start the programme by publishing the implementation framework for nationwide Smart Metering in a timely and cost effective manner.

All the cost implications and technical installation issues for the national roll-out will be addressed as we set up the pilot programme for the first 25,000 homes.

What is a Smart Meter?

A smart meter is simply a new type of electricity meter, capable of several functions that cannot be carried out by traditional meters. These new features could include:

The storage and two way communication between supplier and consumer of electricity consumption data by time of use.
Communication to a visual display which can be easily located in a readily accessible location in a person’s home.
The ability to recording exported units of electricity as well as electricity consumed
the ability to switch between credit and debit modes of operation without the need for manual intervention.