Ireland's ESB Shuts Down Poolbeg Units

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Ireland's national power company Electricity Supply Board (ESB) (Dublin) has decommissioned two oil-fired units at the Poolbeg power station in Dublin.

The two 120-megawatt (MW) thermal units, which were originally commissioned in 1971, have been offline since 2007, after ESB made an agreement with Irish energy regulators to reduce the company's generating capacity by 1,300 MW. Unit 3, which used a turbo-alternator manufactured by Alstom (EPA:ALO) (Levallois-Perret, France) and a 'once through'-type boiler manufactured by MAN SE (ETR:MAN) (Munich,Germany), was decommissioned a number of years ago, reducing Poolbeg's capacity to 461 MW.

"Units 1 and 2, which were old oil units, closed on March 31," a spokesman from the ESB told Industrial Info. "These units are closed permanently and will not be reopened at any stage. We will not replace these units, as they have reached their maximum capacity. The ESB made an agreement with the energy regulator in 2007 whereby the company's maximum capacity has been regulated in order to provide competition in the market. There are still three gas-fired units at Poolbeg in operation."

The ESB began construction of a combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant at the Poolbeg site in the 1990s. The plant comprises two Siemens (NYSE:SI) V92.4A gas turbines, units CG14 and CG15, two Austrian Energy heat-recovery boilers and a Siemens steam turbine (ST16). The first boiler went into operation in 1995, the second in 1999, and the steam turbine in 2000.

The Poolbeg station is a well-known landmark in Dublin thanks to its twin candy-striped chimneys, which stand 207 metres tall and are among the tallest structures in Ireland.

In addition to the closure of the older Poolbeg units, the ESB 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. The closure of these plants also secured permission for the ESB to build the 430-MW CCGT station at Aghada in Cork. The 275 million euro plant is being built by Alstom and will use the company's GT26 gas turbine with a low-NOx burner.

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