Energia's owner is planning to close two power plants in Dublin
Viridian’s two Huntstown facilities could be shuttered by the end of May.
STAFF AT TWO major power plants in Huntstown have been notified of redundancy as it plans to close both plants this May.
All-Ireland energy company Viridian said that because one of its plants was awarded a “reliability operation” contract by the energy regulator and the other wasn’t, that it wasn’t possible for the company to recover its costs, and would have to close both plants as a result.
RTÉ News, which broke the news this morning, has reported that the decision will have no impact on Viridian’s retail arm, Energia.
On Friday, the joint system operators of the electricity market in Ireland announced those who were awarded contract under a new system called the ‘Integrated Single Electricity Market’.
Under this new system, the Huntstown 1 plant was awarded a contract but the second plant, Huntstown 2, was not.
Viridian employs around 630 staff across Northern Ireland and the Republic, 40 of whom work in its Huntstown facilities.
Possible solution
The Huntstown Power Plant is a gas-fired power station in north Dublin which the Viridian Group claims is capable of powering 1.5 million homes or providing 20% of Ireland’s electricity needs.
Viridian says that it has invested over €1 billion in Ireland’s energy-generation infrastructure since 2000.
In a statement to Fora‘s sister site, TheJournal.ie, the company said that it “continues to believe the Huntstown plants are critical to the security of electricity supply in the Dublin area”.
It said that it has had “a number of constructive interactions” with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and the energy regulator, but a solution to ensure the Dublin plants remain in operation has yet to be found.
The Commission for Energy Regulation has issued an information paper that suggests putting an energy reserve contract in place to secure people’s energy supplies.
“Viridian remains firmly committed to playing its part in urgently progressing discussions to resolve this issue,” the company said.
The Commission for Energy Regulation has been contacted for comment but did not respond at the time of publishing.
Written by Gráinne Ní Aodha and posted on TheJournal.ie
