Minister appears to rule out emergency use of Offaly plant

A Fine Gael Minister of State has raised the possibility of the Lanesboro power station being brought back into use in the case of an emergency shortage of electricity, but he appeared to rule out Shannonbridge power station being called upon in similar circumstances.

Westmeath TD Peter Burke, who is Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, spoke about the issue on Shannonside FM's Joe Finnegan Show on Tuesday.

He admitted that, with winter approaching, there was now "an uneasiness" among the Government about the reliability of the country's energy supply.

The Minister said it was his view that the renewed use of the Lough Ree Power Station in Lanesboro, which closed at the end of 2020, should be "firmly on the table" in the case of an emergency.

However, he said recommencing electricity generation at the West Offaly Power Station in Shannonbridge, which also ceased operating in December 2020, would be more difficult to achieve.

"Shannonbridge is more significant in terms of the work that has to be done (to get it up and running again), because some of it has already been decommissioned, but Lanesborough may not take an awful lot to get back," said Minister Burke.

The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) and Eirgrid appeared before an Oireachtas committee last week. The committee was told no guarantees could be given that there wouldn't be electricity blackouts this winter.

Speaking this week, Minister Burke indicated that the Oireachtas committee hearing had caused disquiet among the Government.

"I think people's minds will have been focused after the performance of the two main actors, the CRU and Eirgrid, at the Oireachtas committee last week," he said.

"People have got worried since then. I detect an uneasiness, strongly, across Government now, so we really need to look at these options."

He said he had spoken to past employees of Bord na Móna about the possibility of the Lanesboro plant being called back into action.

"I have asked various people that worked in the old Bord na Móna plant. I understand there are significant harvested stocks of peat already present there.

"I also know that we could look at other biomass options, which could be done in an emergency measure."

The ESB is planning to develop a 75 megawatt capacity battery storage facility - comprised of 19 battery storage units - at the site of the Lanesboro station.

Minister Burke said he didn't want to "raise expectations" that the Lanesboro plant would soon be reverting to electricity generation, but he did feel it was an option that ought to be considered by the Government.

"My firm view is that we have a pathway for Lanesboro, in terms of the planning application for the huge new facility that's going to be put in place there, with the 75 MW capacity battery storage across 19 units.

"That's a massive plan in the future, but we have a key, stark demand facing us over this current winter.... In the very short term we should be future-proofing ourselves from shocks that may happen."

He declined to put a timeframe on how long it might take to get the Lanesboro plant up and running again.

"That's not something I'm an expert in. From talking to people who have worked there, they tell me that they have stocks and that it would not take an awful lot to bring it back onto the grid. But we need to put meat on the bones of that.

"We need to look at this, because it's infrastructure that's already there. It's already a relatively new power station and it was, until December 2020, connected to the grid."

Meanwhile, in the Dáil next week, a Regional Group of opposition TDs, including former Minister Denis Naughten, will seek to introduce emergency legislation which would call for the reopening of both the Shannonbridge and Lanesborough plants.

The legislation, entitled the 'Energy Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act', includes a provision requesting the "immediate" reopening of 250 megawatts of power generation at the two Midland power stations, to be fuelled by biomass.

The Regional TDs Group said both stations were presently lying idle, despite a 10-year lifespan being left in each of them.