The ESB must improve the performance of its stations because there will be no room for unreliable plants in the newly liberalised market, the company's head of power generation has warned.
In a message believed to have strong support among senior management, Mr Kieran Sweeney, general manager (power generation), warns that penalties could be imposed on poorly performing stations. "There will be no room for plants that are unreliable. We have two years left to improve station performance and to get availability right," he said.
"We still have a lot of maintenance, inspection and replacement work to do, it is essential that we use this time wisely," he said. Mr Sweeney's comments come at a time when union and management talks are believed to be focusing on the issue of closing or selling-off uneconomical or "mid-merit plants".
The ESB Group is also under pressure to improve the availability of its plants.
According to figures from the national grid, only 78 per cent of power stations are available to generate power, based on a rolling average. A spokesman said the position had improved in the last couple of months and the previous figure was 76 per cent.
In an interview with the ESB internal newsletter, EM, Mr Sweeney highlights the issue of getting improved performance from the ESB range of plants.
"Our focus must be on improving our plant performance. We must first get our plant in the right condition to deliver the performance which we require," he explained.
"The new market will include both incentives and penalties for station performance as well as profit and loss regulation. Each station's income will be dependent to a very large extent on its actual production of electricity."
Meanwhile, the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) has concluded auctioning off excess power to various independent suppliers.
The process, known as the virtual independent power producer (VIPP) auction, gives smaller electricity companies a chance to supply the market.
The successful bidders on this occasion were Bord Gáis Energy Supply; the combined heat and power specialists CH Power Limited; a new company called Direct Independent Energy Limited; Energia, the supply arm of Viridian; and ESB Independent Energy, a ring-fenced entity within the ESB group. This company is only allowed to get power from the VIPP auction and the Synergen plant in Dublin.
The successful bidders purchased a total of 385 megawatts of power. "The outcome from this auction will result in the sale of additional volumes of generation capacity from independent suppliers to customers," said the CER in a statement. "Currently, 56 per cent of the electricity market in Ireland is open to competition," it added.
