History

Background

Edenderry Power Plant is of critical importance because of security of supply of power from indigenous fuel as well as the socio-economic benefits in supply of power from peat. The plant directly employs 45 people as well as c. 250 indirectly in supplies to and services provided to the plant. These wages, supplies and services plough some Euro 30 million back into the local economy annually. Our current contracts governing supply of fuel from Bord na Mona and offtake of electricity to ESB PES are in place until 2015. These contracts are underpinned by a PSO (Public Service Obligation) that supports electricity fuelled from the peat industry and that PSO will also expire in 2015.

Construction & Operation

Construction of the plant commenced in January 1999 and the Boiler structure was completed in August of that year. The main plant buildings were ready in December and Turbine erection and connection to the National Grid were completed in May 2000. Synchronisation of the plant to the Grid took place in September with full commissioning in December 2000, six months ahead of schedule. Most of our present team were recruited early in 2000 and were involved in the commissioning of the plant. In all, the plant took two years to build and at it's height, some 600 people worked on it's construction.

On November 27th 2000, the plant was officially opened by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke TD.

Certification

From December 2000, Edenderry Power Plant has been supplying 120MW electricity, meeting c. 3% of Ireland's requirement. By October 2001, over one million tonnes of Peat were consumed.

In June 2002, Edenderry Power Plant became the first Irish company to achieve accreditation to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 Quality, Environmental and Health & Safety standards as part of one integrated system. Later in 2002, "Excellence through People" people management certification was awarded.  In 2006 the ISO 17025 Testing & Calibration certification was earned by our new testing laboratory and in 2010 we received the BS EN 160001 which represents the latest best practice in energy management.

Expansion

The decision was made to construct a peaking plant to support the continued addition of wind generation on the national grid.  This consists of two gas turbine generating sets and is scheduled for completion in October 2010.