The (ESB) (''Bord Soláthair an Leictreachais'' in
Irish ), sometimes called ''ESB Ireland'' to differentiate it from
US utilities, is responsible for generating and transmitting of most of the
Electricity in the
Republic Of Ireland .
There are three interconnectors with
Northern Ireland Electricity and it is proposed that a new north-south interconnector will be constructed over the next few years. The
Irish Government has recently approved the construction of a subsea ''
East West Interconnector '' between
Ireland and
Wales , this is being developed by a third party
Imera Power .
The ESB has come under increased competition in recent year because of competition and deregulation policy. In recent years there have been independent power stations constructed at
Edenderry ,
County Offaly ;
Huntstown and
Ringsend ,
Dublin ;
Tynagh ,
County Galway and
Aughinish ,
County Limerick .
The ESB was established by the fledgling . The scheme was Ireland's first large scale electricity plant - and at the time, it was believed that it would meet the total energy demands of Ireland. To give an idea of the growth in demand, the output of Ardnacrusha is now approximately two per cent of national peak demand for power.
By
1937 , plans were being finalised for the construction of several more hydro-electric plants. The plans called for stations at
Poulaphouca ,
Golden Falls ,
Leixlip (all in
Leinster ),
Clady , Cliff and Cathleen's Fall (between
Belleek and
Ballyshannon in
County Donegal ),
Carrigadrohid and
Inniscarra (in
County Cork ). All these new plants were completed by
1949 , and together harnessed approximately 75% of Ireland's inland water power potential. Many of these plants are still in operation — however their combined capacity falls far short of Ireland's modern needs.
With Ireland's towns and cities benefiting from electricity, the new government pushed the idea of ''Rural Electrification''. Between
1946 and
1979 , the ESB connected in excess of 420,000 customers in rural Ireland. The Rural Electrification Scheme has been described as "the Quiet Revolution" because of the major socio-economic change it brought about. The process was greatly helped in
1955 by the
Electricity Supply Amendment Act, 1955 .
In
1947 , the ESB, needing ever more generation capacity, built the ''North Wall'' station on a 7.5 acre (30,000 m²) site in
Dublin's industrial Port area on the North side of the
River Liffey on the site of an old oil refinery. The original station consisted of one 12.5 MW steam turbine that was originally purchased for a power station at
Portarlington but instead used at ''North Wall''. Other power stations built around this time included the peat fired stations at
Portarlington ,
County Laois , and Allenwood in
County Kildare .
Because of the risks of becoming dependent on imported fuel sources and the potential for harvesting and utilising indigenous peat, the ESB - in partnership with ''
Bord Na Móna '' - established those stations and ESB also built Lanesboro power station in
1958 . Located in
County Longford , the plant burns
Peat , cut by ''Bord na Móna'' in the bogs of the Irish midlands. In
1965 the
Shannonbridge station was commissioned. It is located in
County Offaly . The two stations have been replaced by new peat-fired stations near the same locations, and peat is also used to power the independent
Edenderry Power plant, in
County Offaly .
As in most countries, energy consumption is low at night and high during the day. Aware of the substantial waste of night-time capacity, the ESB commissioned the
Turlough Hill pumped storage hydro-electric station in
1968 . This station, located in
County Wicklow , pumps water uphill at night with the excess energy created by other stations, and releases it downhill during the day to turn turbines. The plant can generate up to 292 MW of power - but output in limited in terms of hours because of the storage capacity of the reservoir.
The
1970s brought about a continued increase in Ireland's industrialisation and with it, a greater demand for energy. This new demand was to be met by the construction of the country's two largest power stations —
Poolbeg in
1971 and
Moneypoint in
1979 . The latter, in
County Clare , remains Ireland's only coal-burning plant and can produce 915 MW - just shy of the 1015 MW capacity of Poolbeg. In
2002 and
2003 , new independent stations were constructed - Huntstown Power (north Dublin) and Dublin Bay Power (
Ringsend , Dublin).
In
1991 , the ESB established the ''ESB Archive'' to store historical documents relating to the company and its impact on
Irish Life .
On
8 September 2003 , two of the last remaining places in Ireland unconnected to the national grid -
Inishturbot and
Inishturk islands (off the coast of
Galway )- were finally connected to the mains supply. Some islands are still powered by small diesel-run power stations.
The ESB had a monopoly in the Irish electricity market for the best part of a century. Under
European Union legislation, the Irish electricity market was opened to full competition for domestic users in
2005 . Business users had already been able to choose their electricity supplier for some years.
50 wind farms are currently connected to the power system (Jan 2006) and have the capacity to generate 500MW of power, depending on wind conditions.
On
16 March 2005 , the ESB announced that it is to sell its ShopElectric (''ESB Retail'') chain of shops, with the exception of the Dublin Fleet Street and Cork city centre outlets, to
Bank Of Scotland (Ireland) , who will convert them into high street banks. Existing staff are to be offered positions as bank tellers.
Today the ESB consists of several distinct divisions. The division of the company most members of the public deal with is ''ESB Customer Supply'', which supplies energy to homes and businesses. Another major division is ''ESB Networks'', which owns the Irish electricity network, and connects homes and businesses to the network, irrespective of which company supplies their energy. The
Commission For Energy Regulation has insisted on strict separation between these two divisions.
Other divisions include ''ESB Power Generation'', which is responsible for
Electricity Generation and has 19 power stations and a
Wind Power subsidiary; ''ESB International'' (''ESBI'') manages projects abroad in the electricity supply, generation and distribution markets; ''ESB National Grid'' (a ringfenced division) manages the
National Grid , and also transmits energy from other suppliers, including
Airtricity ; ''ESBI Computing'' manages large government and international
Information Technology projects.
''ESB Retail'' traditionally operated a chain of high street electrical shops under the ''ShopElectric'' brand. These have been sold to
Bank Of Scotland (Ireland) , and in
September 2005 began to close down in preparation for their conversion to retail
Banks .
''ESB National Grid'' is the operator of the
National Grid , and its development and maintenance. The high voltage network comprises 6,600km of overhead lines and underground cables at 110kV, 220kV and 400kV voltages. The National Grid also includes 100 high voltage transformer stations. It has been policy for some years that the ''ESB National Grid'' division, which operates the national grid, is to be separated into an independent transmission system operator, called
EirGrid plc. However agreement to accomplish this has been frequently delayed.
ESB has also been involved in
Telecommunication s, as part owner of Ocean, a telecommunications company which was a joint venture with
BT Group Plc . This was later merged with Esat Telecom (now
BT Ireland ), although the brand partially remains as an ISP service,
Oceanfree.net .
Although Ireland has no
Nuclear Power plants, an
Act Of The Oireachtas in
1971 created the
Nuclear Energy Board . Later there was a proposal to build a nuclear power plant at
Carnsore Point , and preparatory work was carried out, but this never resulted in an operational plant, owing to widespread public opposition. Most of the ESB's generation capacity relies on
Peat ,
Coal ,
Oil , and
Wind generation.
Moneypoint and
Poolbeg are the two most significant
Fossil Fuel power stations — their combined capacity accounts for over a third of total capacity. Much of the peat is supplied by
Bord Na Móna while
Bord Gáis supplies gas via its network.
The Ardnacrusha hydro-electric scheme and
Turlough Hill pumped storage scheme are the most significant
Renewable Energy plants. There are additional hydro-electric schemes on the rivers
Clady ,
Erne ,
Lee and
Liffey . The company also operates a few small wind farms throughout the country through its subsidiary ''
Hibernian Wind Energy ''.
The ''Shannon Scheme'' was the start of the ESB's reliance on
German electro-technology, especially for plant, in particular
Siemens and the associated 220
Volt (now 230 volt) supply. Domestic equipment mostly followed the
UK British Standard s for the most part with very few exceptions, perhaps the only significant anomaly being that Irish bathrooms generally do not have pull cord-operated lights but rather a traditional wall mounted light switch outside. A small number of old installations used the German
"side-earth" type sockets but the majority of buildings use
British Style Plugs And Sockets . German/Swiss style
Fuseboxes were almost universally used in preference to UK-style
Consumer Unit s containing
Rewirable or
Cartridge "wylex" fuses although these are now being superseeded by
Circuit Breakers in newer buildings. The
Main Fuse in Irish domestic supplies is usually only 63 or even 35
Ampere s compared to the 80 or 100
Amp standard in the UK which sometimes causes difficulties for households using multiple
Electric Shower s.
The ESB is one of the largest companies in Ireland and employs over 8,500 people, it is 5% owned by its workers - this ownership is known as ''ESB ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) Trustee Limited''. The company is heavily unionised with the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) being one of the largest unions in the company. The last major strike was in .
- R. O'Connor, J.A. Crutchfield, B.J. Whelan. ''Socio-Economic Impact of the Construction of the Esb Power-Station at Moneypoint, Co. Clare'' (Economic and Social Research Institute, 1981) ISBN 0707000416
- Tim Hastings. ''Semi-States in Crisis: The Challenge for Industrial Relations in the ESB and Other Major Semi-State Companies'' (Oak Tree Press, 1994) ISBN 187285379X
