General Scheme - Energy (Windfall Gains in the Energy Sector) Bill 2023
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From: Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
- Published on: 21 March 2023
- Last updated on: 3 April 2023
The war in Ukraine has led to significant increases in wholesale natural gas prices. As a result, consumers are paying higher prices for gas and electricity. High wholesale gas prices have also led to windfall gains for some entities in the fossil fuel production and refining sectors and in the electricity sector.
Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 on an emergency intervention to address high energy prices, which came into force in October 2022, seeks to address the issue of windfall gains by collecting and redistributing proceeds from these gains. The Council Regulation does this by introducing:
- a temporary solidarity contribution based on taxable profits in the fossil fuel production and refining sectors
- a cap on the market revenues of certain generators (such as wind, solar and oil) in the electricity sector
On 22 November 2022, the Government approved the implementation of these measures along with key high-level decisions in relation to their implementation.
On 21 March 2023, the Government approved the General Scheme of the Energy (Windfall Gains in the Energy Sector) 2023 Bill which will implement the temporary solidarity contribution and the cap on market revenues.
The General Scheme and associated draft Regulatory Impact Analysis are published below. The General Scheme will be the basis of the Energy (Windfall Gains in the Energy Sector) 2023 Bill which will be brought to Government before being published and introduced in the Oireachtas.
