Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

Grid Link Project: EirGrid

9:30 am

Mr. Fintan Slye:

Or a possible customer. None of the options materially changes that situation. What will dictate the availability of supply for a customer in Mayo, for example, will be how large a customer it is and how close it is to existing or planned infrastructure. If the customer is relatively close to an existing transmission line and that transmission line has capacity, there is the ability with an overhead transmission line to tap in and create a station and serve them. That is what is being pursued by the likes of the Apple development in Athenry. The Apple site has two 220 kV transmission lines traversing it and therefore it is easy to tap in. The Grid Link project is about the balance of power between those emerging resources in the south and south west of the country and trying to get that to the demand centre in Dublin. None of the options would materially affect a new pharmaceutical plant that was contemplating developing in Carrick-on-Shannon, if that answers the Deputy's question.