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14
SERVICES AND ELECTRIC IRELAND
February/March 2012 www.esb.ie/em
Declan Furlong conferral
DECLAN FURLONG, of the ESB Business Service Centre at ESB Head Office, was recently conferred with MSc (1st Class Hons with distinction) in Management of Information Systems from Trinity College Dublin at a recent commencements held in Trinity.
His dissertation, Vehicle to Grid in the Irish Retail Electricity Market, investigated evolving business models for vehicle-to-grid technology and the resultant impacts the implementation of this technology might have on the ICT solutions that support the operation of the retail electricity market in the Republic of Ireland. Also known as V2G, vehicle-to-grid is a system where plug-in electric vehicles, such as electric cars (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), communicate with the power grid to sell demand response services by either delivering electricity into the grid from their batteries or by throttling their charging rates.
Declan previously earned a Bachelors of Science in Applied Computing from WIT in 1991. He was recently appointed Manager of Business Projects within BSC - Technology Solutions.
Electric Ireland Colouring Competition
ELECTRIC IRELAND and the RSA distributed 80,000 high visibility vests to every child who started school last September. The vests were included in the ‘Back to School’ packs which were distributed to primary schools nationwide. These packs also included the Electric Ireland Colouring Competition, which attracted nearly 3,000 entries.
Electric Ireland set to energise Under-20’s Six Nations Home Series
Seventh season of Electric Ireland support for Buccaneers staging of home games
ELECTRIC IRELAND HAS announced their continued support for the Buccaneers Rugby Football Club’s staging of the upcoming U-20 Six Nations Championship home games in Dubarry Park, Athlone.
This is the seventh year that Electric Ireland has sponsored the hosting of Ireland’s home games at the Athlone stadium in association with Buccaneers. Present at today’s announcement were Irish U-20 Internationals, Daniel Qualter (Buccaneers/Connacht), Patrick Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster), JJ Hanrahan (UL Bohemian/Munster) and Conor Gilsenan (UCD/Leinster).
Electric Ireland’s Commercial Manager, Ken McKervey said, “Electric Ireland is delighted to continue the tradition of supporting the home showcase of the best of the emerging young talent in Irish Rugby.”
“We have enjoyed a long and successful partnership with the home series and are delighted to be continuing our involvement in 2012. In the past we have been treated to some outstanding encounters in Athlone and certainly we are looking forward to three very competitive home games this year against Wales, Italy and Scotland,” he added.
Welcoming the continued support Electric Ireland sponsorship of the Athlone hosting brings, Buccaneers RFC President Ted Carty acknowledged the support of the IRFU in bringing prestigious international fixtures to the heartland of the country. “I am his delighted at so many young Buccaneers being involved with the squad with six taking part in recent trial games,” he said.
Ireland will be coached again this year by Mike Ruddock and will have a new team manager in Brian Roantree.
Ireland will play three home matches in Athlone against Wales on February 3rd, Italy on February 24th and Scotland on March 9th. Each of these games will be televised on RTE 2.
A special Finnish visitor
A FINNISH SEA captain who played a role in Ireland’s rural electrification scheme more than 40 years ago returned to Dublin in December.
Erkki Poikosen, now aged 81, was owner and skipper of the MV Ritva, which delivered more than 150,000 poles for use in the scheme, about 15% of the total.
During his short stay in December, Mr Poikosen met with descendants of the late Peter Conroy who, with Neil O’Donoghue, was charged by ESB with managing logistics and the import and delivery of materials used in the project to bring electricity to 480,000 rural homes between 1946 and 1980.
At any one time there were typically 40 separate construction crews in operation employing 3500 - 4500 staff. Over 1M poles, 1M transformers and 100,000km of line were used in the scheme, which cost about €130M, of which €30M was provided by way of a government subsidy to the capital cost.
Peter Conroy played a central role in the Rural Electrification Scheme and he is remembered in a special plaque that was unveiled in his honour as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations in 2006. As well as sourcing and purchasing 1m poles from Finland, Peter also chartered Mr Poikosen’s ship, the Ritva. Before Erkki bought her and became her master, she had been named the Make. The Ritva delivered 150,000 consignments of poles from Finland to Dublin, Cork and Limerick. The total number of poles used in the scheme was more than 1,000,000.
The skipper and the logistics manager gradually became good friends, so much so that Mr Poikosen visited Ireland and stayed with the Conroy family in Dublin on a number of occasions. Peter and his wife are now sadly deceased but their only child Miranda Conroy remembers Mr Poikosen’s visits to their home. They kept in touch over the years and their re-union was part of this planned visit.
During his short stay in Ireland, Errki was reunited with Miranda and met her partner Seamus and her twin sons Philip and Josh.
Deputy Chief Executive Johnny Shine, who had met Miranda and her family during the Rural Electrification 60th Anniversary celebrations, also met the visiting group and presented both Erkki and Miranda with a framed copy of an ESB Archive photograph of the Ritva on one of her early voyages to Ireland.
At the request of ESB Archives staff, the Dublin Port Authority hosted a visit to Dublin Port for Mr Poikosen, Miranda and her family. The visiting group were given a full tour of the Port by Dublin Port PRO Charlie Murphy and shown the probable location where the MV Ritva would have berthed to unload its cargo of poles.
The ESB Archives team also recorded an oral interview with Mr Poikosen, which will be a very important addition to ESB Archive and for those studying the history of rural electrification.
Jim Murphy Graduation
Jim Murphy pictured following his graduation from Dublin City University recently. Jim was conferred with a Masters of Business Studies (MBS) in Safety and Health at Work (1st Class Honours). His final year thesis was on the use and benefits of Risk Assessment. Jim currently works in ESB Services and Electric Ireland as a manager on the Safety, Health, Environment and Sustainability team.
