No bids received to light Dublin's streets

The contract to power Dublin's 47,000 street lights is to go out to tender again shortly after an earlier attempt to find an alternative supplier to the ESB failed to attract any bids.

In a key test of deregulation of the energy market, there were no tenders earlier this year for the €2 million contract to light the capital's streets.

As a result, Dublin City Council is saddled with a 29 per cent increase in the tariffs payable to the ESB for public lighting next year.

While the Commission on Energy Regulation (CER) has approved price rises for all categories of ESB user, including a 20 per cent hike for domestic users, the largest increase was for public lighting suppliers.

North Dublin Fine Gael councillor Naoise Ó Muirí said yesterday he wasn't happy with the decision of the CER and claimed the increase would swallow the council's available budget for lighting maintenance.

"I don't think the regulator is doing a good job here. On the one hand, the council can't find an alternative supplier and on the other, it has to take a huge rise in lighting costs." He called on CER representatives to appear before councillors to explain their actions.

Paddy Creaven of the council's lighting department described the increase as "pretty horrendous" and said it would eat into the budget available for improvements.

A spokesman for CER defended the 29 per cent price increase. He said it was due not only to rising fuel costs but also to the cost of maintaining and extending the lighting network and the fact that lighting was used heavily during the evening peak period when electricity was most in demand.