Government approves the drafting of the Private Wires Bill

Legislation will support the build-out of Ireland’s electricity grid
 
Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien has secured Government approval to commence drafting of the Private Wires Bill. The Bill will amend the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 to enable private development of electricity wires in four specific circumstances.
 
Private wires legislation will aid the build-out of Ireland’s electricity grid, whilst simultaneously accelerating the roll-out of renewable energy and electricity storage solutions. In this way, private development of electricity infrastructure will unlock new investment and alleviate grid constraints.
 
As per the approved Private Wires Policy Statement in July 2025, this Bill will allow for private wires to be built in four limited circumstances:
 

• To permit a private wire linking a single user of electricity to a separate singular generation asset. This connection may also include storage technologies;
• To facilitate hybrid grid connections;
• To allow on-street charging solutions for Electric Vehicles;
• To allow a customer that self-supplies electricity to provide electricity to a separate customer in a contiguous premises.

 
In order to develop a General Scheme in line with these four use cases, the Department worked in close consultation with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), as well as ESB Networks and EirGrid. A regulatory impact assessment (RIA) was also conducted to evaluate the costs, benefits and impacts of the proposed legislation. To ensure diverse and accurate representation, an extensive public consultation was held to inform the policy statement in 2023. Feedback was received from a wide range of stakeholders including industry representatives from the renewable generation community, demand users, environmental groups, and farming associations.
 
As the Bill is being drafted and implemented, the Department will continue to work closely with the CRU and system operators – EirGrid and ESB Networks – to ensure private wires are regulated to high safety and technical standards and do not interfere with the efficient development of the national transmission and distribution grid.
 
This Bill is the next step in implementing the Private Wires Policy Framework. The development of the framework was committed to as an action in the Climate Action Plan and Programme for Government 2025. The Regulatory Impact Assessment and Heads of Bill are available now to view at this link: https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-climate-energy-and-the-environment/publications/private-wires-bill-2025-general-scheme-and-regulatory-impact-analysis/.
 
Minister O’Brien said:
 
“The approval for the drafting of this Bill is a positive step in the implementation of the Private Wires Policy Statement which was approved by the Government this year. Once they are enabled, Private Wires will allow for private investment in electricity infrastructure, particularly to enable the development of more renewable energy and electricity storage. Private Wires will provide greater opportunity for electricity customers and generators, and this will form part of the overall solution for further electrification and development of clean energy, whilst still ensuring that the national electricity grid is the primary route for electricity connections.”