Viridian expects first-half results to meet expectations, Northern Ireland's main electricity supplier said today as it announced the building of a second power station in the Republic.
"The group's results for the first half will benefit from the sale of various property assets," Viridian said in a statement ahead of its results on November 23rd for the six months to end-September.
The group said it anticipated no further property disposals in the second half of the year. Having benefited recently from strong demand in the Republic, Viridian said that it would expand capacity there with the construction of a new plant next to its existing station at Huntstown near Dublin.
"We would intend to grow our customer base here over the next couple of years ... to be ready for when the new station comes on line," group managing director Mr Harry McCracken told journalists at a briefing in Dublin.
In the meantime, the company will have to source power from Northern Ireland and maybe even Scotland in order to achieve that, he said.
The project, which will cost Viridian a total of €250 million, should be complete by 2007 and is expected to give the group enough capacity to supply about 17 per cent of Ireland's total electricity requirements.