Viridian in group bid for CER project

A consortium, whose members include Viridian, Airtricity and Treasury Holdings, has taken the first step in bidding to build a €500 million Ireland-Wales electricity interconnector.

Viridian chief executive Mr Patrick Haren confirmed yesterday that it was leading a consortium that had made a submission to the Commission for Electricity Regulation (CER) expressing interest in the project.

The group made the approach two weeks ago after the CER invited submissions from the private sector. The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Dermot Ahern, last month asked the CER to establish if there was private sector interest in the project.

The commission is likely to follow this with a formal competition to find a developer for the interconnector, which will be a public-private partnership.

Mr Haren told The Irish Times yesterday that Viridian was leading the project. The consortium's other members are wind energy company Airtricity, property group Treasury Holdings, and South Western Services, a group of investors from the southwest of the country.

The consortium has hired Goodbody Stockbrokers' structured finance unit as advisers. The stockbroking firm was also responsible for bringing the South Western Services group on board.

Mr Haran estimated the cost of the interconnector at €500 million on the basis that its capacity would be 1,000 mega watts (mw).

"The Minister has indicated that the Government would prefer a 1,000 mw interconnector, the cost of that would be of the order of €500 million," he said.

The consortium is due to meet the CER's representatives over the next few weeks to discuss its proposals. The commission is then due to report back to the Minister before it proceeds to the next stage. If the Government gives the go-ahead this year, the interconnector is likely to be up and running in 2010.

Viridian built the Moyne interconnector that links Northern Ireland and Scotland. The company sold that last year for £122 million (€182 million). The move contributed to a reduction in debt to £382.7 million at the end of 2003 from £522 million the previous year.

The company yesterday reported an 8 per cent increase in pre-tax profit for 2003 to £114.2 million from £104.8 million. Turnover grew to £834.2 million from £781.2 million, while earnings per share increased 12 per cent to 53.3p.