Winds of change

A man with a wide-angle view of the world, Dr Eddie O'Connor cites majorleague historical figures such as Bismarck in a discussion on the merits of wind-produced electricity.

Known as a radical political activist in his student days, and whose strongly-held views were described by one wag as "left of Mao", he is no less committed to his current project.

The personable former chief executive of Bord na Mona is now running Eirtricity, a windpower company which started selling electricity last March.

He describes the transition from leftist radical - he was known as "Red Eddie" - to capitalist with an environmental slant, via a lengthy stint in the State sector, as a process of natural development. "It's been the history of my life to move and thanks be to God to be able to move. It's great to have learned how to do things."

Along the way, of course, Dr O'Connor faced significant difficulty. In 1996, the Cabinet suspended him on full pay from the top position at Bord na Mona. He resigned three days later after agreeing to a settlement package which was worth £242,000.

The board at the State-owned peat company - which did not seek his resignation - had concluded that Dr O'Connor's remuneration package exceeded government guidelines of the time. According to a Price Waterhouse report commissioned by the company's chairman Mr Pat Dineen, Dr O'Connor was paid a basic salary of £187,000. His expenses in a three-year period amounted to £141,000, of which £39,000 was paid without receipts being produced. Dr O'Connor argued at the time that the Price Waterhouse report included remunerated expenses that were not of personal benefit.

Does he agree that his stewardship of Bord na Mona ended in tears? "Yes and in blood as well . . . It was very tough on my family and on my father. But, genuinely, the blow that doesn't kill you strengthens you and you come out a refined personality."

Any regrets? "I regretted it at the time but I've absolutely no regrets now. It's wonderful to have been with those people in Bord na Mona who stood by the CEO in a time of crisis. The way to make no mistakes is to do nothing. At least you've been doing something."

At 53, a life preoccupied with golf, fishing and "nice bottles of red wine" could well be a possibility, but Dr O'Connor has other things in mind. "A lot of guys my age, they've done their thing. I feel we're only starting," he says.

Now committed to the cause of "green" energy, he was nevertheless a leading figure in the ESB - where he spent his early career - when it was setting up the coalburning generation plant at Moneypoint, Co Clare, in the 1980s.

If Dr O'Connor does not deny the irony, his focus today is on the Kyoto Accord and the Government's obligation to reduce dangerous emissions into the environment.

Here, Eirtricity sees more than a window of opportunity.

The company, in which National Toll Roads has a 51 per cent stake acquired for about £10 million (€12.8 million), already claims more than 2,000 customers. These are mostly in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector with consumption of 50-100 kilowatt hours per year.

"We're going to sell to domestic customers and we'll continue selling to SMEs. It will take us three years to get to significant scale," says Dr O'Connor.

His target is ambitious. Of the 1.2 million domestic users of electricity, Dr O'Connor claims Eirtricity could secure business from up to 300,000 within three years - a quarter of the national market.

Crucially for Eirtricity, there is no limit in the newly-deregulated electricity business on the market share available to green power producers. Others are confined, initially, to about 300 major industrial users of power who make up the 29 per cent of the eligable market which was opened last February.

But Eirtricity's plans do not stop there.

The company will export power and seek partnerships across Europe as "heavy" interconnectivity becomes a reality in the next 10 to 15 years, says Dr O'Connor. "If we manage it right and set up the right partnerships we'll finish up as a very big player in the deregulated Europe . . . If we're going to get our vision, we want to be one of the seriously major companies in the energy market in Europe."

Given Kyoto, governments will be obliged to foster the green sector, boosting the business, he says. "In aggregate, this will be the biggest civil construction project in the history of the world."

He dismisses a suggestion that reliance on wind power - which is dependent on natural forces - could lead to interruptions of supply if the weather was calm. "If you've enough dispersed wind it's actually very reliable. If you have wind from all around Ireland, there'll be very few times that wind won't be blowing."

Eirtricity currently takes delivery from six independently-owned wind farms and it plans to construct three others in Donegal, Kerry and Cavan.

The company will offer 15-year power purchase agreements to land-owners who build wind farms, he says. The plan is to develop this partnership approach, with Eirtricity concentrating on selling energy. "We need a lot of megawatts."

What of those who say wind farms are an eyesore? Arguing that the level of acceptance increases once a wind farm is constructed, he adds: "You shouldn't be putting turbines in areas of high natural beauty . . . It's a question of not being stupid and putting them in the right place. The over-arching concern we have is do we deal with the biggest environmental crisis facing the world."

The key, he argues, is to address the issue by means of profit-making commerce. "We wouldn't be willing to do it without making a profit."

So what of the use-of-system charges levied to transmit Eirtricity energy to its customers through the ESB's network? Dr O'Connor says only that they are high.

Asked about the pace of progress in the Irish market since liberalisation last February, which has been criticised by certain industry insiders, Dr O'Connor says: "In general there has been determination to get it right. Rome was not built in a day."

A reader of history books, Dr O'Connor is "very attracted" to figures such as Bismarck and Nelson Mandela. But while he retains a strong interest in politics - on a "very intellectual" basis - his days of activism are over. "I'm still passionately interested in politics," he says. But he adds: "I don't think I'd be very good at it."