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Aug/Sept 2010 www.esb.ie/em

NEWS

Board members visit to Dunmore Windfarm

Gina Quinn and Des Geraghty, Board Members of ESB Networks Ltd., recently paid a visit to Dunmore Wind Farm in Co. Louth. They were accompanied on the visit by Jerry O’Sullivan, MD ESB Networks Ltd., Dave Byrne and Pat Blunt.

Launch of Energy Systems Engineering Programme

MINISTER for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan T.D. officially launched the B.E. Programme in Energy Systems Engineering at NUI Galway and is pictured above with Ger Hurley, Course Director; President of NUI Galway, Dr James J. Browne and Philip LeGoy, ESB ecars. The new course, which will be based in the new Engineering Building currently under construction at NUI Galway, has been developed in partnership with key members of the Energy industry including; ESB, GE Energy, Airtricity, Bord Gáis, Wavebob and consulting firms, ARUPS and RPS.

ESB Novusmodus

investment in Intune Network

ESB Novusmodus, the cleantech and renewable energy fund, has invested €3 million in Intune Networks, a Dublin-based developer of high-performance laser technology for the telecoms industry. The investment adds to Intune's recent €22m funding round, with funds being used to complete the development and commercialisation of its high performance optical data switch technology.

Intune's patented fast-tuneable laser-technology solves the costly performance bottleneck problems facing major mobile telecoms carriers when existing network architectures struggle to deal with huge increases in data traffic.

Mobile data traffic is forecast to grow by a factor of 10 in less than five years with video consuming more than 50% of new bandwidth. The problem is exacerbated by the recent proliferation of high-powered mobile devices, such as netbooks and smart phones, which create increasingly unpredictable data traffic patterns. Intune's innovative solution uses high speed laser tuning technology to colour code address locations, greatly reducing the processing requirement.

The technology doubles network performance while also halving power consumption, thus cutting costs by 50%. Intune's breakthrough solution also increases the potential utilisation of existing metro fibre networks from below 10% to above 80%. Intune is currently building the platform for the Irish Government's recently announced €5m Exemplar Network, which is to be an open test bed site for companies trialling high speed network applications.

Novusmodus's John McKiernan – appointed as a director of Intune Networks – said, “Intune Networks’ revolutionary technology has the potential to transform the way that carriers operate their metro networks, solving bandwidth problems at the same time as halving their energy consumption. We are delighted to be backing such an excellent management team and a company founded by Irish engineers with enormous global prospects.”

Intune Networks CEO, Tim Fritzley, said, “We’re very happy that ESB Novusmodus decided to invest in us, adding another top-flight institution to our list of shareholders. Major telecommunications carriers all over the world face increasing stresses on their networks as the uptake of high powered mobile devices continues to drive mobile traffic. Our product solves this problem without the installation of additional fibre optics and is both cost-efficient and less energy intensive.”

2009 Annual Report published

ESB is recommending a dividend of €94.4 million for 2009. This, plus a special interim dividend of €185 million approved by the ESB Board last October, brings the total dividend paid by ESB in 2009 to €279.4 million. Over the past eight years, the Company has paid dividends of €815 million to the Exchequer.

Publishing its annual report and accounts for 2009 on Friday, July 30th, ESB said the Company also provided €400 million in support to the market last year in order to stabilise and reduce electricity prices for all customers, including those of its competitors.

ESB revenues for 2009 amounted to €3.1 billion with profits of €580 million – an increase of €307 million on the previous year that was attributable to the once-off sale of power generation assets to the Spanish utility, Endesa.

Describing the financial performance as “good in a difficult environment”, the Company chairman, Lochlann Quinn said ESB made a contribution of €2.7 billion to the Irish economy in 2009 alone.

“Capital investment in 2009 was over €900 million. This brought its total investment in Networks Transmission and Distribution infrastructure to €6 billion over the last decade. As a result, we have one of the safest, most reliable and robust electricity infrastructures in the world”, he said.

ESB net debt increased during 2009 by €143 million to €2,231 million.

“This debt level is comfortably within our commercial parameters and allows us to implement our Strategic Framework to establish ESB as the leading sustainable energy company in Ireland while developing business in British and other European markets”, the chairman added.

ESB Chief Executive, Padraig McManus, said that ESB had, during 2009, implemented a major reorganisation of its main businesses in preparation for full deregulation of the electricity market. The Company's power generation business in Ireland and abroad and its consultancy, asset management and investment wings have been brought together under the umbrella of ESB Energy International.

ESB's regulated and unregulated supply business and its energy services will operate under ESB Energy Solutions.

Last year was a challenging one with the overall reduction in demand for electricity coinciding with increased competition in both generation and supply, the Chief Executive said. ESB's competitors on the generation side – including Viridian, Scottish and Southern, Endesa and a range of wind generators – are now generating more electricity than ESB on an all-island basis.

More than 400,000 customers had left ESB Customer Supply by the end of 2009 as new entrants to the residential market, Bord Gais and Airtricity, took advantage of falling commodity prices to offer discounts on ESB's regulated prices, Mr McManus added. This figure rose to just under 600,000 by mid-2010.

On the Networks side of the business, specific sustainability initiatives including the Smart Metering User Trial and a range of Smart Networks initiatives have been rolled out. The Company also launched an initiative with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, to promote the use of electric vehicles in Ireland by committing to providing a nation-wide charging infrastructure.

Lochlann Quinn, Chairman ESB.

In addition to disposing of generating stations at Tarbert and Great Island to Endesa, ESB also purchased the minority 30 percent interest held by Royal Bank of Scotland in the Synergen CCGT plant in Dublin. In Britain, ESB's joint venture 840 megawatts power plant with Scottish and Southern Electricity at Marchwood was successfully commissioned.

During 2009, ESB also acquired its first wind farm project in Britain in West Durham and Devon while having five wind farms under construction in Ireland.

“ESB's financial performance in 2009 enabled us to press ahead with our investment strategy and continued support for the Irish economy in spite of the global downturn”, Mr McManus said.

In the current year, ESB completed a deal to acquire NIE Group, the owner of the Transmission and Distribution assets in Northern Ireland.