Plan to build two new power stations by 2009

An electricity generation crisis will not come to pass if two new power stations are built by 2009, the Minister for Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, has said.

Both the IDA and the ESB have warned there could be power cuts as early as next winter unless proposals to increase the supply are accelerated.

The organisations were responding to the Government's Green Paper which sets out targets for more renewable energy and greater integration with the UK and continental European markets by 2012.

However, the Minister has said that the building of two new stations, which could potentially supply more than 12 per cent of the State's electricity needs, would be enough to meet demand.

Speaking on yesterday's RTÉ News at One programme, Mr Dempsey conceded that energy supply would be "very, very tight" over the next few years, but he had been told by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) that measures were already in place to ensure that demand could meet supply.

"I'm reasonably pushing that we have new power stations built by 2009. In fact, the Government lays out in the Green Paper that, in addition to the two, that a further should be put in place," he said.

"We have assurances from CER that we are not in huge danger of blackouts or a shortage of supply between now and 2009 provided we get the single electricity market in place and provided we put in place the two plants we are talking about."

At present there are proposals to built two new gas-fired stations in Co Cork, one at Aghada near an existing station and another one at Whitegate.

The electricity single market is due to come into operation in November 2007 when the Republic and Northern Ireland's grids are made compatible. That would be followed in 2012 by an electricity interconnector with the UK, but the IDA warned yesterday that the interconnector must be built by 2010 if a major power crisis is to be averted.