Epower is giving serious consideration to abandoning the electricity market, The Irish Times has learned.

Controlled by Esat's founder, Mr Denis O'Brien, it has suffered a number of serious setbacks in the past year. The company is considered a significant player in the electricity market, which was partially liberalised last year.

Despite rising demand for power which could prompt shortages next winter, the pace and structure of liberalisation has been privately criticised by virtually all players operating in the industry.

EPower confirmed yesterday that "all options" were being assessed. Last week it made seven of its 15 staff redundant.

When asked whether the company might leave the market, its spokesman said: "Obviously that is always an option. . .all options are being considered in the context of a fair and level playing field being introduced, implemented and enforced by the regulator."

The EU Competition Commissioner, Mr Mario Monti, has said the structure of the market is "not favourable to competition" and three large groups have already withdrawn their operations.

CRH pulled out of a project in Huntstown, north Dublin which it had planned with Viridian, the Northern Ireland firm; Scottish Power has abandoned a US-led project at Mulhuddart, west Dublin; and BP is now seeking to sell the stake it bought from Scottish Power in the Mulhuddart scheme. EPower is one of BP's two partners at Mulhuddart - the other is Ireland Power, which is controlled by a US businessman, Mr Larry Thomas.

BP has never commented on the reasons for its departure. EPower's spokesman declined yesterday to comment when asked whether certain industry figures who claimed BP's stake the Mulhuddart project was being sold for free were correct.

"EPower is optimistic about finding a partner," he said.

EPower secured rights to buy 240 megawatts (MW) of wholesale power from the ESB in an auction conducted last year by the Commissioner for Electricity Regulation, Mr Tom Reeves.

However, its spokesman said yesterday that it had sold only 160 MW to its customers.

The auction was designed to facilitate competition before private companies built their own power generation plant.

Because the Irish market is relatively small, in-house generation is crucial to the fortunes of supply businesses such as ePower's.

EPower's attempts to develop its own generation capacity have met with a number of setbacks. The firm failed to secure planning permission for a plant near Navan, Co Meath. When it joined Ireland Power and BP, it failed to secure a gas supply under a competition run by Mr Reeves.

The company has complained about the pace of liberalisation of newly deregulating power market. It has alleged the ESB was engaged in anti-competitive practices.