ESB faces €175m bill to reduce pollution

The ESB is facing a €175 million bill to drastically reduce pollution levels caused by its generating station at Moneypoint, Co Clare, it emerged yesterday.

Correspondence from the State company to the Environmental Protection Agency sent as part of a process to secure an Integrated Pollution Licence (IPC) for the station from the EPA shows the scale of spending required. In order to comply with the IPC licence, the ESB is seeking to reduce its sulphur dioxide (S02) and nitrous oxides (NOx) emissions at the plant by 80 per cent and 50 per cent respectively.

Currently the station which supplies about 20 per cent of the State's electricity, is the largest single contributor to Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions through the release of SO2 and NOx to the atmosphere from the station's two 715 foot high chimney stacks.

The EPA has set down emission limits of SO2 beyond January 1st, 2008, and if the ESB proceeds with the proposals to meet the limits, the life of the coal-burning station will be extended to 2025 to recoup the costs of the environmental measures. If the ESB decides not to proceed with the controls, the future of Ireland's only coal-burning station will be uncertain. An ESB spokesman refused yesterday to be drawn as to whether the station would operate post 2008 if it is in breach of its emission limits.

Instead, he said that the ESB will always be in compliance with any licence for Moneypoint. If the ESB is to comply with the emission limits, it must spend up to €175 million on primary treatment alone at the plant, which was built in 1986 at a cost of €950 million.

According to a consultation document published by the ESB on the proposed "Environmental Retrofit Project" for the station, "the works may also include the removal of the two chimney stacks to be replaced by a single combined lower stack".

In order to reduce SO2 levels, the ESB will have to put in place a Flue Gas Desulphurisation system which will cost between €65 million and €130 million, while the operating costs of the system are between €8 million and €20 million per annum.

In order to reduce NOx levels, the company must spend €47 million on new machinery.

Work is expected to start on the first phase of the NOx reduction measures in the next year to test the technology. The environmental measures may also include the investment of a further €104 million in a Selective Catalytic Reduction to provide secondary treatment to further reduce NO2 levels, though according to an ESB spokesman the company believes that these works are not required to achieve the targets set by the licence.

The spokesman added that a planning application complete with an Environment Impact Statement is to be submitted later this month to Clare County Council relating to the works proposed.