Group to discuss State's ability to provide electricity

A Cabinet sub-committee on infrastructure is to consider concern over the State's ability to meet its electricity generating capacity in the coming years.

The concern follows recent "red alert" and "amber alert" incidents in which the supply came close to failing to meet demands because a generating station had been taken out of the national grid for repairs.

Yesterday the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said she had been assured by the ESB that it had sufficient capacity to generate adequate supplies on a daily basis for the next two years.

However, the company has acknowledged that planning delays for proposed generating stations meant there could be problems in the near future.

It points out that generating electricity is separate from the transmission difficulties which make it difficult for the company to guarantee continuous high-grade electricity to parts of the south-east, Cork, the west and the north-west.

Mr Colm Donlon of the Industrial Development Agency confirmed yesterday that two firms, one in Donegal and the other in Cork, had installed their own generating capacity as the ESB was unable to guarantee a sufficient supply to meet the companies' expansion plans.

However, the ESB says it has a £500 million plan to improve the transmission of high-grade electricity to these areas. In a statement yesterday, the company said it "was aware of the need to have such electricity delivered on a national basis to every community. The company has plans to expand the transmission at an anticipated cost of £500 million".

However, the ESB is said to be extremely concerned about a recent case in which planning permission was rescinded for power lines across the Lee estuary in Cork and it has appealed this decision to the High Court.

Regarding the generating of electricity, the ESB is concerned that similar difficulties could affect its plans to meet anticipated demand.

The ESB currently meets a demand for 3,800 megawatts (MW) during the peak period, usually around January. The national grid has capacity for 4,350, so even if a 150MW station went down, the ESB says, it could usually maintain supply.

But with demand increasing by 200MW annually, it is not difficult to see how important it is for the ESB to get the new generating stations operational.

The ESB expects to commission the new gas-fired generating station at Poolbeg in Dublin next month. This will have the capacity to contribute 160MW. A Finnish company, IVO, has plans for another generating station at Edenderry, Co Offaly, which is expected to contribute 117MW but not until early 2001.

In addition, a CRH/Viridian joint venture plans a 400MW station at Finglas in north Dublin, but this has run into planning delays and is unlikely to be operational before March 2002.

A fourth station at Ringsend in Dublin, planned as a joint venture between Statoil and the ESB, would initially contribute 400MW, rising eventually to 600MW.

Yesterday's statement from the ESB said the company was invited and "expecting to participate fully with the interdepartmental committee serving the Cabinet sub-committee on infrastructure".

According to the Department of Public Enterprise, the subcommittee was formed last March and consists of the Ministers for Environment, Justice, Public Enterprise and Finance, as well as the Tanaiste and the Attorney General. A spokesman for the sub-committee could not be contacted yesterday.