Dempsey decision on Aghada set to be overturned

A KEY element of the Government’s energy white paper, presided over by embattled minister Noel Dempsey, looks set to be overturned.

The minister in his then department, marine and natural resources, insisted at the start of this year that the new €300 million Aghada Power plant in Cork could only be built as long as its output was made available to another supplier and was not sold directly to ESB customers.

However, ESB unions have pointed out an anomaly — under the new all-island market which came into affect at midnight last night, all power stations north and south over 10 megawatts had to offer their electricity into a central pool. Electricity grid management companies Eirgrid in the Republic and SONI in the North would then decide on a market price before deciding from which plants to take the electricity.