The Economic Social Research Institute (ESRI) has called for more fuel diversity in Irish energy policy to protect Ireland against the risk of oil or gas price shocks.
Launching a report on aspects of Irish energy policy, the ESRI said that fuel diversity and the introduction of bio-fuels would be vital in securing Ireland's electricity needs in the future.
The report said that by the end of the decade 80 per cent of the Republic's electricity supply would be generated by gas and because the gas is piped from Moffad in Scotland, the supply is not secure.
It called for gas to be piped from a secondary source in Scotland to improve the security of supply.
The all-island electricity market, to be introduced in July 2007, is likely, according to the report, to confer significant benefits on consumers, reducing the long-term cost of providing a reliable electricity supply below what it might otherwise be.
The report adds that the dilution of the ESB's dominance in electricity supply resulting from an all-Ireland market would mean that current inefficient and uneconomical power plants would be closed down and replaced by more efficient ones by new suppliers.
"Where possible, the ESB distribution and supply should move to buying in services on a competitive basis," the report stated.
The ESRI also recommended the introduction of a carbon tax on fuels like petrol, coal, gas, peat and home heating.
It said that unless Ireland introduces a carbon tax for sectors not covered by emissions trading it will either miss its emissions reduction target or else the cost of meeting it will be excessive.
Transport and home heating are not currently covered by trading emissions.