Consultation on RESS 6 terms and conditions by the Department for Climate, Energy and the Environment runs until 13 March 2026.
The Department previously published a decision on non-price criteria in RESS auctions, which we looked at here: Renewable energy update: Non-price criteria decision | Arthur Cox LLP. It now seeks views on the following proposed features of RESS 6.
1. Community Benefit Fund: It is proposed to require a minimum contribution of €2/MWh based on deemed energy output, rather than actual metered output. This may impact project and bid prices, particularly where available energy is constrained down. It is also proposed to require projects to establish Community Benefit Funds on or before the date they receives Interim Operation Notices from the System Operator (“SO”).
2. RESS 6 Support Duration: The Department seeks evidence of the impact on project deliverability and bid prices of moving away from the support period of 15 years and/or introducing phased reduction of support levels over an extended support period.
3. Capacity Factors: The Department proposes to increase the onshore wind and solar technology capacity factors to 45% and 14% respectively. A strong evidence base for any change is needed. Setting capacity factors inappropriately potentially risks driving over-installation of capacity and increasing bid prices.
4. Relief Events: It is welcome that the Department seeks views on the adequacy of the two-year period provided through Relief Events for SO and judicial review delays. Introduced in RESS 4, Relief Events trigger entitlement to request extensions to relevant Milestone Completion Dates and/or the Longstop Date for Commercial Operation, as well as potential extension of the period of Support.
5. Minimum Eligible MEC: The Department proposes to raise the minimum eligible Maximum Export Capacity to compete in auctions to 1MW.
6. Eligible Technologies: With the introduction of resilience criteria under the Net Zero Industry Act (“NZIA”), the Department proposes to limit eligibility to onshore wind and solar projects, and hybrid projects incorporating those technologies and electricity storage.
7. Technology-Specific Auction Pots: The Department indicates that future RESS auctions will implement two technology-specific auction pots (wind and solar).
8. Unrealised Available Energy Compensation (“UAEC”): Given the introduction of energy system integration (“ESI”) criteria to auctions (which we looked at here), the Department questions whether the UAEC should be removed or adjusted. The Department acknowledges that policy and market arrangements, such as MEC sharing, are currently under development. As we commented previously, development of market and system rules to support hybrid connections and hybrid units (which are beyond the scope of the consultation on dynamic sharing of MEC) will be needed to enable solutions that allow bidders to maximise ESI. There is not yet visibility of reforms that would enable bidders to mitigate the risk that UAEC is intended to address.
9. Exemptions from NZIA non-price criteria for projects under 10MW: The Department seeks further information on feedback it received in the consultation on non-price criteria, which it considers suggests there is little advantage to exempting small projects from NZIA requirements and providing an alternative support mechanism for them.
10. Repowering: The Department seeks information on whether current RESS eligibility criteria for repowering projects are appropriate (namely that a project’s deemed annual electricity must increase by at least 50% and the investment must meet the €300,000/MW threshold).
11. RESS Market Price Reference Period: The Department seeks feedback on the impact of introducing a longer Market Reference Price reference period for RESS projects as compared to the current day ahead market price. The intent is to align with European Commission guidance on the design of two-way contracts for difference, which indicates that longer reference periods have potential to support efficient plant maintenance, preserve incentives to participate in forward markets and across electricity market timeframes, and encourage investment in installations that maximise market value. Current market conditions in Ireland will need to be considered. The Commission indicates that setting the reference price is not straightforward and recognises that there can be different forward products available in each Member State. In Ireland, financial transmission rights are currently not available. The Commission also notes that forward market products are currently mostly issued in the form of baseload products, which are more relevant where there is a relatively constant production profile such as with nuclear installations. It is also assumed in the guidance that combining generation assets with flexibility solutions means that the installation becomes dispatchable and, as we have noted above, further development of market and system rules is needed in Ireland to support hybrid connections and hybrid units.
12. Other: The Department invites views on any further issues. Market participants may consider that it would be helpful to see further details on non-price criteria and scoring mechanisms.
Publication of final RESS 6 terms and conditions is planned for Q2 2026.