The national grid has enough power to meet the demands for electricity over the peak winter season, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms O'Rourke said yesterday at the opening of the new £100 million (#127 million) peat fired station near Edenderry, Co Offaly.
"The chairman has told me on behalf of the ESB that there is sufficient power," the Minister said. "This new plant, which is around six months ahead of schedule should also help the situation."
The demand for electricity should reach a peak of between 3,900 megawatts and 4,000 megawatts of power this winter, Mr Ted Dalton, managing director, Irish electricity at the ESB told The Irish Times. The ESB could generate 4,500 megawatts, with the new Edenderry power station adding a further 120 megawatts to the national grid, he said.
"Everything is being managed. There is no shortage of power," he said. By the middle of next year, work on upgrading the interconnector with Northern will be complete, the Minister said.
The new power plant at Edenderry, developed by the independent Finnish power company, Fortum, will provide 3 per cent of the State's energy, according to Dr Valerie Kohler, chairwoman of Edenderry Power Limited, part of Fortum.
It is the first major power station to come on stream resulting from open competition and is the first significant power station of any kind since Moneypoint was completed in 1986. It is expected to act as a blueprint for two new peat fired generating stations to be built by the ESB in Shannonbridge and Lanesboro.
Forty-five will be employed at the new plant, which will consume one million tonnes of peat annually. Using fluidised bed peat combustion technology, the plant is generating electricity from peat sourced from Bord na Mona and supplying it to the ESB, with which it has a 30 year contract.
Despite plans by Fortum to sell off the Edenderry plant as part of a broader restructuring programme, Dr Kohler said it remains committed to developing a 400 megawatt gas-fired power station in Co Kildare as part of a consortium involving Bord na Mona and French gas company Elf Acquitaine.
Dr Kohler added that Fortum was currently in negotiations with a number of parties over the sale of the Edenderry power plant and expects the process to be complete in early 2001.
