Two new generating plants under construction in Ireland will only meet the nation’s demand for electricity until 2001, the Electricity Supply Board claims. After that, new capacity will be required, Dow Jones reports.
The two plants are a 460 MWe combined cycle power station at Poolbeg, near Dublin, which is due to start serving the grid at the end of 1999, and a 117 MWe peat-fired power plant, due to be completed during the first half of 2001. The latter will be the country’s first private sector power plant.
Demand in Ireland is growing at an average of 6 per cent per annum. As a consequence the additional capacity will only satisfy demand until 2001. Several companies, including Marathon Oil and the Viridian Group are seeking government approval for private sector power projects.