Debate contribution: Household Energy Costs

Debate contribution by Dr Steve Aiken OBE on 7 October 2025.

MLA

Dr Steve Aiken OBE

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

7 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Household Energy Costs

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5164962

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you very much indeed. The importance of this amendment is to talk to the cross-cutting example of the issues that we have before us. I welcome the Minister's being here, but the main issues will also refer to the Minister for the Economy, the Minister for Infrastructure and the Executive. These are all cross-cutting issues, and if we are to be able to deliver what we need to for the people of Northern Ireland, we need to work across Departments. We cannot talk about energy at home without identifying the interconnectivity of all these issues, and we need to be able to recognise some very significant points that, unless we deal with them, we are never going to get there, as Ms Armstrong kindly pointed out. There is considerable vulnerability in our grid infrastructure, and, on several occasions, our party has written to the Economy Minister and stated that these are problems that need to be resolved if we are to sort out or move towards a more electric economy. Unbelievably, the Economy Minister has written back to me on several occasions, stating that there were no problems, yet we have the example of what happened when the permanent secretary went in front of the Economy Committee and identified the fact that we nearly reached a "dark amber" condition for our electricity market. That sounds like "red" to me, which means that we are about to have systemic failure. We keep on talking about this, but we are missing some of the fundamental points, because we get to a point where we have electricity grids that are ready to fail because there are too many single points of failure in the system, including Coolkeeragh, which is owned by the NIE parent company ESB and always seems to be down for maintenance. You would wonder why nobody is taking any particular interest in this. We know that what we need to do is sort out these cross-cutting problems, but we also know that the Executive recently had an emergency meeting — or should I call it an urgent meeting? — to deal with the fact that the lights were about to go out.

Very much to the fore in the main motion and what the Alliance Party has brought forward before is the fact that all Ministers had to agree to a significant increase in the amount of carbon derogations just to keep the lights on. If that is not germane to this debate, I have absolutely no idea what is.

We need to understand that it is well beyond time that we had an independent review of the System Operator for Northern Ireland (SONI) and NIE Networks's failure to invest properly in our grid. We talk time and again about small-level electricity and the ability to use, in particular, photovoltaics (PV) and other technologies to make things work. However, we cannot do that if we do not have a grid that is capable of withstanding the amount of PV energy that is likely to go on it. Equally, we cannot do that with a grid that has extremely large connection charges to meet up with it in order to try to make it work. Pardon the pun: this is not rocket science. It has been done successfully in Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Devon and the Republic of Ireland. What lessons have the Executive taken from the process and what we are trying to do? What lessons are we taking on investment in the grid? The questions that we have to ask are fundamental. We need to undertake an independent investigation into the costs of doing those things. We hear you say, quite rightly, that we need to invest heavily in our housing stock in order to bring it up to net zero standards, but why would a contractor do that in Northern Ireland when, with the same materials, planning constraints and contractors, it costs two to three times as much in Northern Ireland as it does in Scotland, England and Wales? Why are we not investigating that? That is a part of our amendment. Do you not think that that is germane to what we are discussing in this debate? It is fundamental to what we are trying to do. It is not about saying, "I do not understand why the Ulster Unionist Party is raising this issue. It should have been raised under something else". That is pathetic. We also need to look very closely at how we can add to the process. It is not just a question of reducing the amount of emissions that are required to keep our homes warm. It is also very much about how we can use the rest of the systems that we have. The Alliance Party talks time and again about getting towards net zero carbon and the approaches that are needed for that. There is great opportunity to do that. We can look at things such as anaerobic digestion and injecting green hydrogen into the grid, but then we would need changes in the regulatory process to increase the amount of green hydrogen in the grid, which would enable us to have a much more dynamic power system altogether. We should be in a position where people can self-generate electricity and sell it to the grid. Again, that needs grid to make it work. Of course, unless we have a grid that works, all the things that the Alliance Party talks about will have no impact whatsoever, because if you cannot import or export power, it just does not work. We also need to look closely at pricing and pricing structures. We are part of the integrated single electricity market (I-SEM). If you listen to people who talk about the I-SEM, you will hear them say time and again how important it is for energy security in Northern Ireland. Anybody who understands electricity — it is a pity that Mr Frew is not here — will tell you very clearly that the I-SEM is a virtual-only market. We are not connected North/South. We are connected east-west, because every time that there is a power outage or shortage in the Republic of Ireland, it imports energy from Wales, and every time that we need to keep the lights on, we have to import power from Scotland. One of the most important things that we need to be able to make any form of reliable energy and get towards net zero carbon in our housing stock is another interconnector. There is a large volume of cheap or even negatively priced renewable energy in the GB market. We cannot get that for two reasons. First, we do not have sufficient interconnection, which is vital to what we are discussing here. Secondly, we have a monopoly in Northern Ireland. We have a monopoly from ESB and EirGrid, aka Northern Ireland Electricity Networks and SONI. Our prices are fixed by the ability of the infrastructure to deal with the systems that we are dealing with. Unless we can sort that out, we will not get anywhere. Our party is fully supportive of doing everything that we can to improve our housing stock, insulating homes sufficiently and fitting them with PV. However, unless we sort out the grid infrastructure, it is absolutely pointless. It will just be window dressing. It will just be greenwashing. Rather, we need to be able to make everything work. That is why I am being encouraging instead of listening to the rhetoric of the Alliance Party, which would rather just bash unionists, but that seems to be its modus operandi at the moment.

Really. Why did you say what you said when I explained why it is vital —?

Certainly. Sorry, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker.

I do not mind at all.

I do not mind at all making that remark about Alliance. That is why I recommend that Members accept our amendment, because it will significantly improve part of the motion.

1,330 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:23 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification