Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for allowing me raise this issue. Lumcloon Energy Limited was granted planning permission three years ago for a new power station at Lumcloon, Ferbane, County Offaly. Three years later no energy has been generated.

This is because the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has yet to decide on the terms on which the plant can sell electricity to the national grid. This is delaying construction and the creation of 500 potential jobs. Permission was granted for a 350 MW station almost three years ago by An Bord Pleanála and there is already a connection to the national grid. The Department is forcing up electricity costs by as much as 15% for businesses and home owners alike by refusing to give the go-ahead for new power plants such as that in Lumcloon.

Page 4 of the SEM committee's December 2012 document on the future of the single energy market, DS3 System Services Third Consultation, calculates the savings that can be made by new system services, namely, €295 million per annum in addition to the existing €60 million for harmonised ancillary services by 2020. It adds that the benefit is derived from a reduction in total SEM production costs and dispatch balancing costs as a result of facilitating high levels of wind on the system. Lumcloon, it states, is essential to achieving this target. As the overall energy expenditure is somewhere above €2 billion annually, this €295 million saving should benefit the consumer by up to 15%. Even allowing for expenditure to incentivise new plants such as that of Lumcloon, half of the saving would wipe out the residential electricity price increase of 5.9% instigated by Electricity Ireland on 1 October last year. The increase is resulting in many families having their power cut off or relying on the Society of St. Vincent de Paul for support.

Lumcloon will be built without Exchequer or taxpayer investment. I want the Minister to explain why the Department is continuing to hold back on the project when it can act as an essential backup to the proposed wind farms in the region.

See this speech in context