Energy and Infrastructure

Key developments

ENERGY SECURITY PACKAGE

The European Commission published AccelerateEU – Energy Union: Affordable and Secure Energy through Accelerated Action in response to the energy crisis. It is structured around five pillars: enhanced EU coordination on energy security, consumer and industry protection from price shocks, accelerating the shift to clean energy and electrification, strengthening infrastructure, and boosting investment. Key upcoming measures include:

• a new legislative proposal on network charges and taxation to be adopted in May 2026, aimed at optimising use of grid infrastructure and incentivising system-friendly consumption,
• an Electrification Action Plan by summer 2026, including an ambitious electrification target, measures addressing barriers to electrification in industrial, transport and building sectors, and the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies,
• a review of the EU ETS to be proposed by July 2026, including an ‘ETS Investment Booster’ to mobilise €100 billion of funding for industrial decarbonisation through an Industrial Decarbonisation Bank, and
• a State aid temporary framework to support sectors most exposed to price spikes.

The European Commission is due to consider the proposal on network charges and the electrification action plan on 10 June 2026, and the ETS Review on 15 July 2026.

The Commission also published a catalogue of measures for EU Member States on how to address the energy crisis, drawing on the most effective measures taken since 2022.

CITIZENS ENERGY PACKAGE

Following the Communication on the Citizens Energy Package, the Commission published four recommendations on implementation of EU law, set out below, along with an accompanying staff working document. These recommendations will be of particular relevance to energy supply companies.

• Energy poverty: Commission Recommendation (EU) 2026/1001 on the protection of vulnerable customers and customers in energy poverty from energy disconnections and during the phase-out of natural gas or when natural gas distribution networks are being decommissioned has been made to guide Member States on implementing requirements under the Internal Market in Electricity and Gas Directives.
• Renewable energy communities and citizen energy communities: Commission Recommendation (EU) 2026/1007 on supporting the development of energy communities and maximising the potential of self-consumption recommends measures Member States should take to comply with Article 15a of the Internal Market in Electricity Directive, which requires them to establish a right to energy sharing that will ensure that all households, SMEs, public bodies and, where a Member State has decided, other categories of final customer, have the right to participate in energy sharing as active customers.
• Supplier risk management: Commission Recommendation (EU) 2026/1009 on supplier risk management recommends measures Member States should take to ensure that suppliers offering fixed-price contracts have appropriate hedging strategies proportionate to their generation access, capitalisation, exposure to wholesale volatility, size and market position.
• Supply contracts: Commission Recommendation (EU) 2026/1008 on the summary of the key contractual terms and conditions of energy supply contracts recommends that Member States take measures to adopt templates for information that should be provided to energy customers before they are bound by any contract or offer.

The Commission has also published a report on market-based electricity supply prices, effective retail market competition and promoting remuneration of flexibility in retail contracts, as required under the Internal Market in Electricity Directive. Further information is available here: Citizens Energy Package: helping households in the energy transition.

EU GRIDS PACKAGE

It has been reported that the Cyprus Presidency will propose a new revised compromise text before the 26 June Energy Council. The file will be carried over to the Irish Presidency which begins on 1 July 2026. Our briefing on the Grid package is available here: EU Energy Grids Package.

ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF BUILDINGS

As mentioned in our Construction section, further steps have been taken in the transposition of the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Our briefing is available here: Ireland transposes key reforms for BER regime.

PRIVATE WIRES BILL

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy published its pre-legislative scrutiny report on the Private Wires Bill (PDF 359 KB). Members made 47 recommendations, some of which would benefit from further consideration.

For example, Recommendation No. 1 is that the Bill should “justify why existing direct lines legislation under section 37 of the Electricity Regulation Act, or an amendment to the Act, cannot meet the intended outcomes of the private wires general scheme”. As we have previously commented, Ireland has taken a narrow approach to implementing EU law on direct lines. This means that the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (“CRU”) will not grant a direct line permission unless a person has applied for connection to the grid and, either the application has been refused because of lack of capacity, or a dispute has been referred to the CRU and the CRU has formed the view that it is in the public interest to issue the direct line permission.

In practice, applications to connect to the grid tend to be queued up rather than refused outright, or policy is designed to allow for the ‘termination’ of applications. This means that the conditions that would allow the CRU to grant a direct line permission are not triggered. We discuss this further in our briefing: Private Wires: First Principles. It is also worth noting that the definition of direct lines in the Directive is addressed to a more specific set of circumstances than the circumstances contemplated in the Bill.

A further recommendation is that applicants would be required to demonstrate that a grid connection is unfeasible or would result in undue delay. However, it is unclear how an applicant would demonstrate scenarios that sit within system operators’ remits. Some recommendations also suggest that the framework be anchored in climate law, but it is not clear why existing climate and environmental law would not in any case apply. It is also unclear why it is being recommended that private wires must be compliant with the technical standards of ESB and EirGrid. Decisions on optimal technical specifications appropriately sit with developers, who are well placed to meet internationally accepted norms.

DATA CENTRES

Information on grid connections for data centres has been published on the websites of both EirGrid and ESB Networks. This follows the CRU’s 2025 connection policy, which we outlined in a briefing here: New connection policy for data centres in Ireland. The policy is currently subject to an application for judicial review. We are monitoring developments in this area.

SYNCHRONOUS CONDENSER UNITS

The SEM Committee is consulting until 19 June 2026 on potential eligibility of synchronous condenser units to participate in SEM intermediary arrangements, which allow market participants to apply to be represented by an intermediary where they do not wish to accede to the Trading and Settlement and Capacity Market Codes.

DEMAND SIDE UNITS

Following its publication of a set of proposed decisions to deal with the issue of missing money for demand side units (“DSU”), the SEM Committee is consulting until 10 July 2026 on the “the Supplier Compensation Price”, which the DSU aggregator would pay to suppliers (via the Imperfections fund) because the SEMC has taken a view that there should not be energy payments to the DSU aggregator as well as savings in supplier charges for customers.

EU LEGISLATION

The European Commission indicates that it plans to modernise the approach to EU law with the aim of making it simpler and clearer, as well as strengthening enforcement. Further information is available here: Commission proposes plan for simpler, clearer and better enforced EU rules.