Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 310: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the type of investigations that are due to be carried out by his Department into the second temporary closure at Shannonbridge Power Station; when it will be expected to be re-opened; the guarantees that will be put in place to ensure that these difficulties will not be repeated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19594/07]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The operation and maintenance of ESB's power stations is a matter for the company and not one in which I have a function. However, following notification from ESB earlier this month that its West Offaly and Lough Ree peat power plants at Shannonbridge and Lanesboro were experiencing outages on safety grounds, my predecessor requested that the Department's chief energy technical advisor undertake an assessment of the situation. I have received his report which was carried out with full co-operation of the ESB. Given the legal contractual position between ESB and the main contractor, the report is purely factual and does not make any determination as to the reasons for the plant problems. I have asked the chief energy technical advisor to continue to liaise with the ESB on developments.

I am advised by ESB that unexpectedly high levels of corrosion have been found in the 150 MW peat burning West Offaly Power Station at Shannonbridge, County Offaly, and its 100 MW sister plant, Lough Ree Power at Lanesboro. Following investigations, on 1 June 2007 ESB was advised by Foster Wheeler, who built and commissioned the plants, to take West Offaly Power out of service at once for safety reasons. I understand that ESB and Foster Wheeler are working together to resolve the technical problem. Experts have been engaged to study the processes at both plants with a view to finding a long-term solution.

The company assures me it wishes to ensure that these temporary outages last no longer than absolutely necessary but the safety imperative makes it impossible to avoid loss of production while it seeks to solve the problem.

I am also kept informed of any resultant implications for security of supply in relation to electricity. In accordance with their statutory responsibilities, the power generation situation is continually monitored by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) and the independent transmission system operator (TSO), EirGrid, and is carefully managed from EirGrid's national control centre to ensure that security of supply standards are met. I am assured that the situation is being carefully managed by EirGrid to ensure that capacity meets demand at all times.