THE board of the ESB has approved a £10 million refurbishment plan for a peat-fuelled unit at the generating station at Ferbane, Co Offaly.
The refurbishment will extend the unit's life to 2013 and is due to be completed in early 1999. Other units at Ferbane will be retired on a phased basis between now and 1999. Without the refurbishment the unit, which was built in 1964, would have been due to close shortly.
The board approval of the management recommendation follows agreement by all categories of workers at the Ferbane plant to changes in work practices.