Efforts to resolve the three-year dispute between developers of a wind farm near Bantry, Co Cork and 26 local farmers are scheduled to begin today.
The wind farm electricity generating station at Glanta Commons is being developed by local businessmen Bob Murnane and Denis O'Shea of Ballybane Wind Farms Ltd.
The ESB is contracted to install a 14km overground powerline which would be connected to the national grid.
Farmers living along the route of the proposed pipeline, who are members of the Bantry Concerned Action Group (BCAG), are opposed to the overground powerline on safety grounds and want the cables put underground.
The developer has called for talks with the objectors. Today, the parties will begin talks in two separate rooms in a local hotel and Malcolm Thompson, president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Association, will act as a mediator. ESB representatives will not be present.
BCAG chairman Joe Burke said yesterday: "The developer has called for the talks and we never refuse to listen to anyone. All the farmers will be there and we will see what happens."
At the end of last month, the High Court granted an injunction restraining three objectors from interfering with the construction of the overhead power cables.
The farmers had been blocking ESB gates and preventing machinery from constructing the powerline for four weeks.
The injunction was granted on the basis of the ESB undertaking to comply with planning permission and erect all power lines overhead.
Mr Burke yesterday said the action group believed it was impossible for the ESB to build the powerline in accordance with its planning consent because the route passed within 25m (82ft) of a number of houses - less than the permitted distance.
The group believed the ESB would have to apply for new planning permission and this would mean extensive further delays, he added.