Duke Energy International, a major US utility, has entered the Irish electricity market.

The company was one of four successful bidders in an auction of virtual power managed by the electricity regulator, Mr Tom Reeves. The other successful bidders were the ESB's "independent energy" division; Bord Gβis; and Energia, a subsidiary of the Northern Ireland group Viridian.

The decision by Duke to sell power to industrial customers is seen as a boost to the liberalising industry, which has lost market entrants that complained about the pace and structure of deregulation.

The group's president and chief executive for Europe, Mr Alfred Sorensen, said it wanted to get to know the Irish market, in anticipation of a developing electricity generation capacity. Mr Sorensen said the group purchased about 50 megawatts (MW) of power capacity in the auction. It is understood that the ESB subsidiary purchased 240 MW in the auction, the maximum available to it. Energia said yesterday that it too purchased 240 MW.

As 600 MW were available to bidders, Bord Gβis is deduced to have secured about 70 MW in the auction. The State gas company plans a power plant in Co Clare with Aughinis Alumina but it has indicated that it may invest in a north Dublin plant being developed by Viridian.

The auction enables groups that have not yet built electricity generation stations to purchase virtual power from the ESB at wholesale rates which they sell on to industrial scale users.

Mr Sorensen said Duke had been assessing the Irish market for nearly a year. The group had a preference to build a greenfield plant, but he said all options were open.