The ESB's board has accepted conditions imposed on the company by the Government relating to a new €300 million power plant that it plans to build at Aghada, Co Cork. The investment is the first major capital project for the ESB in the Republic in several years. The board decided yesterday that it would move to the construction phase as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the ESB's sole power plant in Northern Ireland, Coolkeeragh, has been shut down for repairs and no date has been given for its return to production.
The disruption could have an impact on the level of supply in the North and the Republic, but the ESB said yesterday power could be found elsewhere and could be imported through an interconnector with Britain.
Security of power supply is a political issue at present and Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey has cited it as one of the reasons why the Government recently gave approval for the ESB to build the Aghada plant.
While the ESB will build the station, the Minister has insisted its output must be sold to "suppliers other than the ESB", which is likely to be Viridian, Airtricity or Bord Gáis. This has proven unpopular with ESB unions, but privately-owned companies like Viridian have accused the Minister of not going far enough and described the decision as "disappointing".
"Allowing the ESB to build and control a large capacity baseload plant while only marginal sites are being made available to independent operators sends a very negative signal to potential new investors. It will lead to increased dominance in the Irish electricity market and frustrate the opportunities for further competition," it said a statement.
One of the reasons newer plants are needed is because the ESB's 19 power stations are becoming more prone to breakdowns or "outages" due to their age. A unit in Poolbeg is out of action and there is no certainty about when it might resume production. An ESB spokesman said Coolkeeragh, a 400 megawatt gas-fired plant, had problems with a compressor and engineers were rectifying the problem.
