Viridian considers building second power plant and reports E170m profit

VIRIDIAN of Northern Ireland one of the ESB’s main challengers here is still reviewing its options to build another power plant in the Irish Republic.

It reported profits before interest and tax of E170 million (stg£114.2m) on turnover of E1.2 billion (stg£834.2m), a 7% increase.

The firm operates the Huntstown generating plant near Dublin, and chief executive, Patrick Haren said the results were a "good set of figures" for the period.

In the case of its future plans in the Republicsouth

Viridian's boss said Viridian Power & Energy significantly increased its contribution to profits reflecting a first full year of operation from Huntstown.

Viridian is the parent >company of Northern Ireland Electricity and has been active here in the Republic for some time.

On the prospects of another plant in the Republic Mr Haren said "the company was continuing to assess the opportunity for a second power station on the Huntstown site, north of Dublin, as well as other investments in the energy sector."

Viridian Power & Energy contributed stg£18.3m to group profits compared to stg£6.4m the previous year.

The company said Northern Ireland Electricity's regulated businesses continued to meet the challenges of itstheir price controls, maintaining itstheir focus on cost reductions while absorbing renewed pension charges.

Pro-forma profit before interest and tax increased from stg£106.9m to stg£112.5m despite renewed pension charges of stg£12.3m.

Reduced interest and taxation charges resulted in pro-forma earnings per share increasing by 12% to 53.3p.

Net debt decreased by stg£139.4m to stg£382.7m.