THE ESB’s new power station in Southampton, which officially opened yesterday, is the largest to be built in the United Kingdom for five years and will supply one million people.
With a plant in Corby in Northamptonshire and the existing gas power station in Coolkeeragh in Northern Ireland, the ESB now supplies 1,600 megawatts in the UK. It intends to raise that to 3,000 megawatts within the decade.
By 2020, once two more electricity interconnectors between Ireland and Britain are built, the Irish and British electricity markets, which have similar regulatory regimes, will be one, ESB chief executive Pádraig McManus said.
Currently, the ESB is barred from building new plants in Ireland on competition grounds. However, the UK market – which is facing the threat of power shortages from 2013 – offers room for expansion.
“The systems are the same, and the language is the same,” Mr McManus said. “It is a very comfortable place for us to operate. There is no difficulty in the way in which the market is set up.”
Faced with the danger of shortages, the British government intends to see 10 new nuclear plants built. Some of them, however, will merely replace capacity lost with the closure of seven existing ones by 2018.
The UK’s energy security became a major political issue during this month’s heavy snows. Electricity demand rose to a high of 59,000 megawatts. This produced a £150 million profits windfall for UK energy companies such as the ESB’s 50 per cent partner in Southampton, Scottish and Southern, which is the UK’s second-largest electricity company. It produces 11,000 megawatts a day from its 100 thermal and renewable energy plants.
By 2015, the UK is also faced with the loss of many of its older coal-fired power stations which are due to close under a European Union directive.
“That is the market that we are hoping to tap into and that is a demand that will continue until the nuclear fleet is commissioned.
“That is looking like it will be 2020 before that happens.
“From 2013, until the nuclear fleet is commissioned, there is going to be an opportunity for plants like our ones to have a good market,” said Mr McManus. He said the Southampton plant opened yesterday would last for 25 years, and more.
The ESB has no plans to enter the UK electricity retail market by selling directly to customers. Both of the output from the plants in Nottingham and Southampton are being sold on long-term contracts.
