Electricity power station work begins

MASSIVE turbines and generators weighing almost 500 tonnes were shipped into Foynes yesterday for the new electricity power generating station being built by Aughinish Alumina at the nearby Aughinish Island.

Aughinish will save €18 million in annual ESB bills when its new power station is up and running next year.

In one of Foynes port’s biggest handling operations, two turbines weighing nearly 300 tonnes and generators weighing 200 tonnes were eased onto the docks from the 12,500 tonne ‘Fair Partner’.

The ‘Fair Partner’ is the biggest vessel of its kind specially designed to carry heavy cargo and was on its maiden voyage from Rotterdam.

The equipment was then brought on the five mile journey to Aughinish by road.

Aughinish Alumina is building its own €100m power station which will be capable of generating 140 megawatts of electricity.

The company is ESB’s biggest customer.

Surplus power will be sold into the Irish electricity grid from the new station when it is commissioned next year.

Aughinish Alumina, owned by the Swiss based group, Glencore, employs 450 and produces 1.5m tonnes of alumina each year from bauxite imported from West Africa.

The alumina is shipped abroad where it is smelted into aluminium. A spokesman for Aughinish Alumina said: “The power plant will be completed by early 2005 a time when

Ireland is forecast to be running short of power generation.”

The new power generation station will be powered by natural gas.

“This will result in a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions within Ireland and greatly assist the country in attaining its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol,” the spokesman said.