Tarbert power station only returns to half capacity following fire

Half of the electricity generation capacity lost when fire closed an oil-fired power station in Co Kerry last month will not be restored in time to meet peak winter demand, the plant’s owner has said.

The loss through the winter of 120mw of capacity at Tarbert, enough to power some 50,000 homes, will add to strain on the national grid at a time of concern about the adequacy of energy supplies to meet increased demand.

Constraints on the electricity network because of surging demand from economic growth and energy-hungry data centres have left the Government reliant on older fossil fuel power stations such as the Tarbert plant to keep the lights on.

The oil-fired station resumed operations on Monday but only with 121mw capacity, which is about half the 241mw capacity lost when a component part of boiler was damaged by a fire 25 days previously. No one was injured in the September incident, which was extinguished by systems and equipment on-site.

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SSE Thermal, owner of the power station, said the generator in question would return to full capacity at the end of February.

The company also said another 243mw generation unit at Tarbert, which has been offline since an outage in April of last year, will not now resume operations as planned next spring. This unit was excluded from a recent generation capacity report from grid operator EirGrid, which warned of a winter supply squeeze.

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“This unit, which was constructed in the mid-1970s, is required to close by the end of 2023 under the terms of its industrial emissions licence,” SSE Thermal said.

“SSE Thermal has been carrying out technical investigations to identify the cause of the fault. On receipt of third-party technical analysis and in conjunction with investigations already undertaken, SSE Thermal has taken the decision the Unit cannot feasibly be repaired before its required closure date. On this basis the unit is now effectively closed.”

Two other 60mw generators at Tarbert are disused, it is understood. The loss of generation capacity at the plant comes amid anxiety about the risk of blackouts when winter demand peaks has already led to moves to commission emergency electricity generation.

Market regulators have advanced plans to impose peak-time penalty tariffs on big industrial users in an attempt to curtail demand for electricity. Although the aim is to pitch prices at levels so high that large companies would have no option but to reduce their use of power on the coldest winter nights, large companies have said such interventions will damage inward investment.