Energy crisis looms within 18 months

The Republic is facing shortages of electricity, gas and water over the next 18 months as networks struggle to keep pace with demand, the Institution of Engineers annual conference in Killarney was told yesterday.

Concern about capacity of the energy networks - particularly outside of Dublin - will be conveyed to the Taoiseach when he addresses the conference on the Government's regional development policy this morning.

Yesterday a number of the State's best-known utility companies, including the ESB and Bord Gβis, said existing network constraints were already limiting economic development in some areas.

Addressing the theme of the conference, "Engineering an island for six million people", the president of the institution, Mr Liam Connellan, said the population of six million would be reached by 2009.

This would force both jurisdictions on the island to plan in earnest for where these people would live and what sort of infrastructure would be required to sustain them.

Mr Connellan said: "We are so far behind with the delivery of our infrastructure - three or four years behind - that the attacks of September 11th might give us some breathing space, but they won't affect the figures we are using."

The chief executive designate of EirGrid, the Republic's proposed transmission operator, Mr Kieran J. O'Brien, said demand in the 1990s had eroded capacity. While a €650 million (£511 million) investment was planned up to 2005, "there is a current deficit of transmission infrastructure outside Dublin," he said.

While the money and the will were there "to bring the transmission back inside international standards," Mr O'Brien said that local objections were significant "barriers in the way of the successful completion of the programme".

On the issue of Bord Pleanβla's refusal for an improved network in north Donegal, Mr O'Brien said the ESB must recognise that there was no transmission network in parts of west Clare and west Kerry and "we must respect that this network is maybe not what some people want".

To ensure future supplies, Mr O'Brien said consideration should be given to the development of a new electricity connector between Ireland and Wales.

Mr Ken O'Hara, chief executive of the ESB, said new power plants would come on stream in the medium term, but he also predicted supply would be "tight" for the coming winter.

He said environmental concerns had risen over the operation of the Moneypoint coal-fired generating plant, but he was adamant its continued operation was "crucial to avoid over-dependence on imported gas".

Mr Gerry Walsh, managing director of Bord Gβis, said demand for natural gas had outstripped the highest case scenario predicted for the past five years and would probably now grow at about 23 per cent over the next two years.

Demand would double by the end of the decade, he added.

He warned that, as the Kinsale field diminishes, gas from the Corrib field would not alleviate supply shortages in the immediate future.

Already 70 per cent of the State's natural gas requirement came from the UK, he said.

Mr Walsh told the conference that despite expanding the interconnector between the Republic and the UK, it had become apparent that "the existing gas infrastructure would not be able to meet peak demand in the winter of 2002."

Mr Walsh said it appeared the provision of a second interconnector between Ireland and Scotland "was the only proposal capable of addressing supply shortfalls within the time frame and of doing so competitively".

The conference also heard that the expansion of urban areas may be limited due to an inadequate supply of clean water.

Nine potential "growth gateways" on the island have adequate supplies while six are at the limit of their capacity. The six are Derry, Limerick, Dublin, Sligo, Cork and Waterford.