A £200 million electricity inter-connector between Scotland and Northern Ireland was announced yesterday. Northern Ireland Electricity and Scottish Power said they have obtained all the consents necessary to enable them to proceed with the project.
The London Economics purchasing review was commissioned by the North's regulator, Mr Douglas McIldoon, last December. It was asked to examine whether the inter-connector could provide Northern Ireland with electricity at an effective price. In a statement yesterday, the managing director of NIE, Mr Harry McCracken, said: "We are delighted we can now proceed with this project. The new agreement between NIE and Scottish Power will bring competitively priced electricity into the Northern Ireland market and will allow immediate access by large industrial customers to low-cost generation in Great Britain."
The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, welcomed the announcement. "It is very important to Northern Ireland that we will at last be linked into the Great Britain electricity grid and thus end our electricity isolation."
The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, also welcomed the announcement.
However, the Alliance party criticised the decision. Its chief whip, Mr David Ford, said: "The capital costs of this scheme are excessive and only covered by European grant aid. The implications for future energy policy in Northern Ireland are huge."
Group 22, which is seeking to secure a natural gas supply for the North and north west, said: "This looks like a bad day for Northern Ireland and a good day for Scotland. It is a particularly bad day for those areas in the north west which stand to benefit substantially in social and economic grounds if we could secure a natural gas supply into the region."