The EU competition commissioner has expressed concern about access to the national electricity grid in the newly liberalised power market.
Mr Mario Monti is understood to have raised a number of competition issues with the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, in a letter she received shortly before Christmas. These mainly concerned access to the market for new power companies that planned to compete against the ESB.
Mr Monti's questions - some of which surround a connection agreement to the grid secured by a power station co-owned by the ESB - are believed to have been prompted after representations by Ireland Power, a group backed by the British-based oil group BP.
It has so far failed to secure a grid connection agreement for a power generation planned for Mulhuddart, west Dublin. Such links are crucial for generation plant; without them, power cannot be supplied to customers.
Yet constraints on the network in Dublin prompted the transmission system operator, EirGrid, to warn last August that the addition of three large plant would lead to increased system losses.
EirGrid is owned by ESB, but will be formally separated from the State company this year.
In addition to a connection agreement with the ESB - which plans a plant at Ringsend, central Dublin, with Statoil - EirGrid has also reached agreement with Viridian, which plans a plant a Huntstown, north Dublin.
Its study on generation demand in Dublin said the addition of another large plant in Dublin would increase costs to consumers. This would defeat the purpose of deregulation, which, in theory, is designed to reduce the cost of power.
Crucially, however, ESB-Statoil's connection agreement with EirGrid was signed in advance of deregulation last February.
Ireland Power is believed to have raised the ESB-Statoil agreement with Mr Monti. The group is backed also by a US businessman, Mr Larry Thomas, and ePower, a Dublin company controlled by Esat's founder, Mr Denis O'Brien.
It is thought Ms O'Rourke will respond soon to Mr Monti.
Yet primary responsibility to regulate the power market rests with the Commission for Electricity Regulation, led by Mr Tom Reeves.
On December 12th, he published draft proposals to change the grid connection system. His draft direction document said EirGrid should grant full access to the grid to whichever groups required it.
Crucially, the document said generation stations should be dispatched - i.e. switched on to the network as demand dictated - according to "economic precedence".
Mr Reeves is consulting industry figures on this proposal, which could mean older plant owned by the ESB supplies the network only after newer, more efficient plant are dispatched.
