Moneypoint environment clean-up cost could put its future at risk

The environmental costs to the ESB in keeping the State's largest power station operating past 2008 have rocketed to €250 million, it has emerged.

This follows the ESB capitulating to the Environmental Protection Agency in a dispute over the level of environmental controls needed to clean up the 915MW coal-burning station at Moneypoint in west Clare before 2008.

As a result, the ESB will have to spend €74 million more than was originally budgeted in the next five years to comply with an EPA integrated pollution control licence for the plant.

The ESB board is to decide next June whether the company will invest the estimated €250 million to keep the station open past 2008. Currently, the station supplies a quarter of the State's electricity.

The station manager, Mr Paul Mulvanney, said yesterday the board's decision on the future of Moneypoint "is impossible to call". It will be based on the station's ability to recover the costs involved in the retrofit project.

With a proposed carbon tax looming, Mr Mulvanney said: "If we don't have a guaranteed cost recovery system in place for the station, it will be very difficult for the board to invest the amount of money that is required."

Labour's environment spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said yesterday: "The higher the costs go to keep Moneypoint open, the more the question of the station's continued existence will come into play. I believe it is a question for the Government to give an answer on, because if the station is to remain open, it will need State assistance or increased energy costs for the consumer."

Moneypoint employs 285 people and contributes more than €9 million in annual rates to Clare County Council. If it was to close, local councillor Mr Tom Prenderville said, west Clare would become "a social and economic wilderness".

As part of its environmental clean-up, the ESB is to reduce sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitric oxide (NOx) emissions by an overall 80 per cent by 2008.

The ESB will have to instal selective catalytic reduction technology at an estimated cost of €104 million. To comply with future emission level limits, the ESB would have had to have the SCR technology installed by 2016 and its decision brings the investment forward by almost a decade.

Already, the ESB is facing planning difficulties. An Taisce is appealing a decision by Clare County Council to An Bord Pleanála over its concern that the ESB proposal at Moneypoint contravenes the Government's National Climate Change Strategy and will result in additional emissions of 126,000 tonnes per annum. The station emits five million tonnes of CO2 per annum.

An Taisce's heritage officer, Mr Ian Lumley, said yesterday the anticipated €250 million cost of cleaning up Moneypoint "raises concerns as to the proper long-term costing of the project".