Firm bids to build €250m electricity plant

A PRIVATE company wants to build a €250 million gas-fired electricity generating plant in Cork harbour.

The proposed plant would generate 400 megawatts.

Several other new, private plants of this scale are being developed nationally, ranking them fifth in size after Poolbeg, Moneypoint, Tarbert and Aghada, the latter also in Cork harbour.

The planned Little Island plant would have almost four times the output of Cork’s other ESB plant at the Marina.

Backers of the plan are private company Mountlawn Ltd, whose identity and track record hasn’t been divulged.

An EIS is set to accompany the planning application, and the plant must also be approved by the Commission for Energy Regulation.

A number of 400-mw privately-funded generating plants are coming on stream to meet the country’s growing demand for energy, according to a spokesperson for the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER), saying they only became aware yesterday of the Little Island plan.

A 350 mw plant opened last year in Huntstown, Finglas in Dublin, and a second related plant is also expected to follow suit there soon, while Edenderry in Co Offaly has a 120 mw peat fuelled power plant.

Another joint development, Synergen, involving the ESB and Statoil, is also bringing some 400 mw to the Irish energy market. A Galway plant, at Tynagh, is to bring 400 mw to market next spring, and Aughinish Alumina is constructing a 150 mw plant.

According to a CER, there’s a demand for some 200 mw to be added to the national grid each year.

Access to gas supplies, water for cooling and proximity to the national grid were key determinants in assessing locations.

The site earmarked for the plant is at Courtstown, Little Island, one of Cork’s long-established industrial areas and now home to a number of new generation business parks, hotels and golf courses. It is understood that other sites considered for such a plant in Cork harbour included IFI at Marino Point.