An "all-island" energy market, possibly with just one electricity transmission operator, would help lower high energy costs north of the Border. A report from the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee of the Northern Assembly, which includes anti-Agreement unionists, has concluded that Northern Ireland has some of the highest electricity costs in Europe.
In the short term there is little capacity for power stations in the Republic to generate surplus electricity for sale in the North but the report said that, with increased interconnection between grids in the North, the Republic and Britain, generators could cut their costs and sell unused power
While the report said "the emergence of an all-island market may provide lower costs to consumers", there were substantial differences between North and South which would need to be addressed.
"Active consideration should be given to establishing a single transmission system operator across the all-island market," it said.
The report said much of the blame for the high cost of electricity in the North lay with over-generous privatisation agreements made in the early 1990s, which will run until the end of the decade.
It was also critical of the fact that Northern Ireland Electricity acts both as the operator of the electricity transmission system and the buyer of electricity and called for these two functions to be separated.
