Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 29 Nov 2000

Vol. 527 No. 1

Written Answers. - Electricity Generation.

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

68 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the extent to which electricity needs can currently be met through the national grid; her plans to augment this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27957/00]

Minister for Public Enterprise (Mrs. O'Rourke)

The national transmission grid will require very significant investment to meet the needs of a rapidly growing and liberalised market over the coming years.

Economic growth over recent years has been reflected in high levels of growth in demand for electricity by all sectors of the economy, averaging around 6% per annum in recent years.

This growth in demand continues to be managed competently by ESB. The categoric assurance which I have received from the chairman of ESB about the adequacy of the power supply situation this coming winter remains valid.

Indeed, I am pleased to say that I officially opened the new 120MW peat fired power station in Edenderry on Monday this week. This new plant, which is almost six months ahead of schedule, will also help the electricity supply situation.

The electricity system, including the national grid, is currently trying to cope with the demands being placed upon it by a larger and fast growing economy as well as the demands imposed by increased market participation resulting from the opening of the electricity market to competition.

There is now a developing need to accelerate the level of capital investment in order to ensure the on-going provision of a modern state of the art infrastructure, both in the high voltage transmission network and also in the low voltage distribution network. Sustained load growth, especially over the past decade, has out-paced additions to the network.

ESB is being encouraged by my Department to increase and accelerate its ongoing network investment programme. It is time to catch-up on past underspend on the network and also invest further expenditure on upgrading the system to meet the demand in growth.

ESB is currently preparing its capital expenditure proposals for next year and it is expected that the bulk of the investment proposals will be targeted at the networks. ESB projects that its capital expenditure on the networks over the next five years will be around £2 billion.