A study carried out by the Economic and Social Research Institute has found that the single EU electricity market should result in lower electricity prices in Ireland.
The ESRI said Ireland's electricity prices were high by EU standards, but the single market would allow suppliers from Britain and beyond to enter the Irish market.
The report also said the single EU market would help the security of supply, as Ireland would have access to a greater variety of power sources - such as hydro power from Northern Europe and nuclear power from Britain and France. The ESRI said that, as a result, there would be less need for Ireland to keep expensive reserve capacity.
An EU-wide deadline of 2014 has been set for the introduction of the single market, but Ireland has been given transitional arrangements until 2016.
The ESRI warned, however, that the building of new interconnectors to export renewable energy from Ireland could increase energy prices. It also said it was assuming that there would be no "major policy failure" in the UK - such as an inability to replace generation capacity - which would result in higher electricity prices.
