The Republic reached a record demand for electricity in the past month, when a number of emergency generators installed by the ESB had to be used to expand the network's capacity, it has emerged.
It is expected, however, to be the last winter that demand comes close to capacity due to deregulation in the electricity market with the emergence of a number of independent power generation companies.
Demand during the evening peak on December 19th reached 4091 megawatts, significantly higher then the previous peak of 4003, recorded in January 2001, and coming uncomfortably close to the State's generating capacity of 4,500 megawatts.
Because of the increasing demand for electricity in recent years the ESB had imported seven temporary power generating units from the US which between them can supply an additional 160 megawatts and these were switched on to maintain capacity on December 19th.
The temporary units are located at Aghada, East Cork, and Killala, Co Mayo. Last year, five such units supplied power for approximately 350 running hours between October and February. The units were commissioned as a result of discussions between the ESB and the Commission for Electricity Regulation, which has responsibility for security of supply since the power market was deregulated.
The situation is expected to be eased this year when the joint ESB/Statoil generating plant at Ringsend and the Huntstown power plant in north Co Dublin are expected to come on stream.
However, a number of prospective entrants to the market have withdrawn, while those remaining have criticised the regulations regarding the prices at which they may buy and sell electricity as being uneconomic.
Last Friday the Commissioner for Electricity Regulation, Mr Tom Reeves, published a discussion document outlining his verdict on a review of the price system.
According to Mr David de Casseres of Huntstown Power, independent producers would only be able to sell power to the ESB at an amount equal to the price of the oil the ESB would have used in generating the power itself.
Yet they would have to pay a much higher price for "top up" supplies which they would have to buy from the ESB.
Mr Reeves has indicated he may change the price at which generators may sell to the ESB.
However, the independent producers still say they want to narrow the gap further between the buy and sell prices.