The ESB said it cannot give a date as to when a group of farmers and landowners will receive three-phase smart meters for their wind turbines, despite the fact they have been losing money for years due to the meters not being installed.

At an EirGrid roadshow in Ennis last week, Pat Muphy from Killimer, Co Clare, said those who entered into a legacy microgeneration scheme have lost up to thousands of euro due to not having three-phased smart meters installed to read the amount of energy they are exporting to the grid.

“We’ve told numerous people to turn off their turbines and turn off their systems for renewable energy generation, because they’re not getting paid.

“The energy is going into the grid for free and the utility companies are selling that on at maximum profit,” he said.

Murphy, who spoke on behalf of a number of people on the night, said he is aware of one man who sold all his shares in Kerry Group to buy a turbine and now it is “not working anymore”.

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.

Alan Keegan of the ESB responded that there is still no date for these three-phase smart meters to be installed.

“One thing that is still on our programme of work is to introduce three-phase smart meters at the latter end stages of the smart metering programme.

“I unfortunately don’t have a definitive date as to when the three-phase meters will be rolled out,” he said.

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