The ESB will roll out three-phase smart meters in 2025, including to farmers exporting energy to the grid who say they are losing money due to not having these installed, a meeting heard.

At the Irish Farmers Journal’s Renewables Roadshow event in Cork this Tuesday, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) said the ESB confirmed it would roll out three-phase smart meters next year.

In response to a question from the floor, Peter Clarke of the IFA said the organisation met with the ESB on the matter.

“Certainly, there are no three-phase smart meters at the moment. ESB Networks, we met with them in the last couple of weeks to discuss this, among other things.

“They did talk about the deemed export formula that’s in place at the moment. It can be estimated and paid to farmers for exports on three-phase.

“Single-phase smart meters are there. That’s counted and paid by the retail operator. Again, as per the ESB, as recently as two weeks ago, they fully expect three-phase meters to roll out in 2025,” he added

Previous information

At a renewable energy event in February, the ESB said it could not give a date as to when these meters would be rolled out.

Farmers and landowners who entered into a legacy microgeneration scheme say they have lost thousands of euro due to not having three-phased smart meters installed to read the amount of energy they are exporting to the grid.

The Microgeneration Support Scheme (MSS), launched in early 2022, allows for a higher payment per unit for energy exported to the grid.

However, without a smart meter installed, payments for actual volumes exported to the grid cannot be made.

Event

There were over 400 people in attendance at the Renewables Roadshow event held in Cork this Tuesday night.

Three more roadshows are taking place around the country in the coming weeks.