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The newspaper for

October/November 2012 www.esb.ie/em

ELECTRIC IRELAND ENERGISES ELECTRIC PICNIC 2012

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PRESIDENT HIGGINS MARKS ELECTRICAID’S 25 YEARS OF SUCCESSFUL SERVICE

PRESIDENT MICHAEL D. HIGGINS ADDRESSING ATTENDEES AT THE LAUNCH OF AN EXHIBITION TO MARK 25 YEARS OF ELECTRICAID. PHOTO FENNELLS

ESB AND ELECTRICAID were delighted when President Michael D. Higgins opened an exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of ElectricAid on September 26th. The exhibition covered the history and development of ElectricAid, the partnership with contributing members, the response to natural disasters, the relationship with Special Partners, and focuses on some specific projects in Eritrea (Vita), Afghanistan (SAFE), and Kenya (St. Theresa).

ElectricAid is ESB and EirGrid staff’s social justice and development fund. Growing from humble beginnings in 1987, ElectricAid is now a significant Irish force for development, and a major funder of grassroots micro-development projects, in Ireland and all over the developing world. With 2,700 contributing members (staff and pensioners), and with strong support from ESB and EirGrid, ElectricAid has over its life funded 1,750 projects with €17 million, changing the lives of an estimated 1.2 million people.

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ESB successfully concludes financial close on Carrington Power Project

“I am delighted to announce that ESB has reached Financial Close with a syndicate of international banks for our latest generation project - a 880MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant at Carrington, Manchester.

The project is funded by non-recourse, project-specific finance, incorporating significant export credit support from the Swiss Export Credit Agency, SERV. International financial institutions participating include RBS, HSBC, Lloyds, KfW IPEX-Bank, Santander, BBVA and Société Générale.

Expanding our generation portfolio in Britain affords us the opportunity to strategically place the company to compete and deliver growth for our generation business. Carrington Power represents a fantastic success in developing and financing this major project in the All Islands energy market. It is a key element of our growth strategy and we are delighted with the positive response from the banking community to ESB as developer of this significant project. This confidence from the banks, particularly at this challenging time, bodes well for the future success of the company.

The overall construction contract has been awarded to the engineering consortium Alstom Duro Felguera and the plant is scheduled to be commissioned in early-2016. ESBI will supervise the design, engineering, construction and commissioning of the plant. At 880MW, Carrington Power will be ESB’s largest CCGT plant and our latest thermal development since Aghada and Marchwood in 2010.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in delivering this major milestone. I congratulate the Carrington project team, Asset Development, ESBI, Finance, Legal and Insurance. An achievement such as this requires huge cross-company effort, co-operation and team work and is a great testament to ESB’s capability."

Pat O’Doherty
Chief Executive

News

Don’t cut back on safety - NIE

Page 08

Innovation

ESBI Bahrain Milestone

Page 11

Generation & Wholesale Markets

Windfarm Safety at Fullabrook

Page 17

In this issue