A new €22 million ESB plan aimed at heading off major power cuts throughout the State will involve buying mobile generating plants and importing electricity from Northern Ireland, new documents show.

According to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, the Government recently approved the plan in principle. It is also supported by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER).

It involves ESB buying several mobile generating plants and bringing in additional power via the inter-connector with Northern Ireland. In a letter, the assistant secretary at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Martin Brennan, says the Department accepts the plan.

His letter, signed in April, also gives the ESB permission to recoup the €22 million "from all electricity customers".

In another letter, dated April 8th, the ESB's executive director Mr Michael McNicholas outlines the details of the plan to Mr Brennan.

He says there will be a shortfall in electricity from September to December 2003 of 150 megawatts, but this will rise to 300 megawatts from January 2004 until the next power station is up and running.

He says based on the assumption that the interconnector with Northern Ireland will not meet the total shortfall, the ESB needs to obtain some mobile generators to deal with the crisis.

The extra capacity is known as "peaking capacity" and Mr McNicholas's letter makes it clear that running mobile generators is expensive compared with conventional plants.

On the subject of who should pay for the measures, his letter says it would be unfair to burden the ESB with the costs. "Our position has been that the additional cost should be recovered from all customers given that it is being secured to support national system requirements."

His letter suggests that while the ESB may bear the costs initially, ultimately it will have to recover these from all customers. However, electricity sources believe it will only have a marginal bearing on the price of electricity. The McNicholas letter says the best way to spread the cost is over a five-year period "to mitigate the impact on tariffs".

On the issue of Northern Ireland, the letter from Mr McNicholas says ESB has entered into discussions with the Northern Ireland power procurer to establish the "availability and firmness of additional capacity" over the interconnector.

The precise cost of the whole project will only be arrived at once the tendering process has been completed, observed sources.

Most people in the industry expect companies offering mobile generating plants to be competitive considering the current economic environment.

The mobile generating plants are very large, sometimes running to the length of several trucks. They generate different levels of electricity depending on their size.