Ireland opens country's largest power plant

In addition to four existing units at the site that have a combined generating capacity of 528 MW, Aghada now becomes Ireland's largest power station, with a generating capacity of 963 MW. The new combined-cycle gas-turbine CCGT facility boasts an efficiency rating of 59, making it the most efficient plant in Ireland, and one of the most efficient in Europe. The plant took just two and a half years to complete at a cost of 360 million euros US $440 million, along with an additional 75 million euros US $91.6 million to upgrade the four existing generating units at the site. The plant is capable of supplying power to more than 500,000 homes.

The ESB claimed that Aghada will help secure Ireland's energy supply.

"The challenge for all energy market participants is to deliver clean, safe and cost-effective electricity to our customers," said ESB Chief Executive Padraig McManus. "The Aghada plant, built by one of the world's leading engineering companies, does all of this."

The Aghada plant was built by Alstom and is the second Alstom GT26 gas turbine-powered plant to be designed, engineered and built by the company in Ireland, following the opening of the Synergen plant at Ringsend in Dublin in 2002.

Using the GT26 gas turbine's low-NOx environmental burner can produce power at 59 net efficiency, which the company maintained is the best-performing technology for a combined-cycle plant in this class.

Ireland's minister for foreign affairs, Micheál Martin, said: "The reinvestment in the existing plant at Aghada and the construction of a new adjacent power station guarantees electricity generation and jobs for decades to come in the Cork area. We are also acutely conscious of the challenges facing us in regard to climate change, and this power station has been built with clean energy in mind and to the highest environmental standards, with minimum emissions."

The ESB had to make numerous concessions to the Irish government in order to get planning permission for the new Aghada plant. In April this year, the ESB decommissioned two 120-MW oil-fired units at the Poolbeg power station in Dublin. ESB has also committed to closing plants at Tarbert 590 MW in Kerry, Great Island 216 MW in Wexford, and the Marina Steam Turbine 27 MW in Cork.