Fuel switching and emissions savings in the residential sector

Network connection fees serve as a barrier to gas being selected as a home heating fuel. A flat-rate connection fee of €249.70 is levied for gas network connections up to 15 metres distance to the gas network. It increases by €51.32 per metre thereafter. This research suggests that switching to a flat-rate connection fee would result in up to 9,000 new residential gas connections; with associated CO2 emissions estimated to fall by 3.9% and residential fuel expenditure by 1.5% summed across all 69,000 unconnected households within 15-30 metres of the network.