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The Electricity Supply Board ( ESB; ) is a state owned (95%; the rest are owned by employees) electricity company based in Ireland with operations worldwide. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concern in a "liberalised" and competitive market. It is a statutory corporation whose members are appointed by the Government of Ireland.
ESB Networks Limited manages construction and maintenance of the electricity transmission system. (The transmission system operator is an independent state company, EirGrid).
ESB Generation and Wholesale Markets (ESB GWM) operates a portfolio of power stations across the country, along with holdings in wind and other renewables.
Electric Ireland is a regulated supply company, one of fourteen companies (as of 10 October 2021) operating in the domestic market. Since 4 April 2011 the Commission for Energy Regulation no longer sets the company's prices; the trade-off for this was that the division was required to change its name from ESB to Electric Ireland, to "remove confusion" between the ESB's role as operator of the electricity network and a supplier in that market. The previous name, ESB Independent Energy, was dropped in January 2012.
ESB International Limited is responsible for the company's unregulated activities, principally providing electrical engineering consultancy services around the world. It has holdings in many areas, such as power-generation joint ventures, renewables development, and computing consultancy.
Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the electricity network in Northern Ireland, and has been part of the ESB since they purchased it from Viridian Group in December 2010. However, the ESB does not own the former supply business of NIE, which was retained by Viridian.
By 1937, plans were being finalised for the construction of several more hydro-electric plants. The plans called for stations at Poulaphouca, Golden Falls, Leixlip (all in Leinster), Clady, Cliff and Cathaleen's Fall (between Belleek and Ballyshannon in County Donegal), Carrigadrohid and Inniscarra (in County Cork). All these new plants were completed by 1949, and together harnessed approximately 75% of Ireland's inland water power potential. Many of these plants are still in operation; however, as could be expected with continuing growth in demand, their combined capacity falls far short of Ireland's modern needs.
With Ireland's towns and cities benefiting from electricity, the new government pushed the idea of Rural Electrification. Between 1946 and 1979, the ESB connected in excess of 420,000 customers in rural Ireland. The Rural Electrification Scheme has been described as "the Quiet Revolution" because of the major socio-economic change it brought about. The process was greatly helped in 1955 by the Electricity Supply Amendment Act, 1955.
In 1947, the ESB, needing ever more generation capacity, built the North Wall station on a 7.5-acre (30,000 m2) site in Dublin industrial port area on the north side of the River Liffey on the site of an old oil refinery. The original station consisted of one 12.5 MW steam turbine that was originally purchased for a power station at Portarlington but instead used at North Wall. Other power stations built around this time included the peat fired stations at Portarlington, County Laois, and Allenwood in County Kildare.
Because of the risks of becoming dependent on imported fuel sources and the potential for harvesting and utilising indigenous peat, the ESB – in partnership with Bord na Móna – established those stations and ESB also built Lanesboro power station in 1958. Located in County Longford, the plant burns peat, cut by Bord na Móna in the bogs of the Irish midlands. In 1965 the Shannonbridge station was commissioned. It is located in County Offaly. The two stations have been replaced by new peat-fired stations near the same locations, and peat is also used to power the independent Edenderry Power plant, in County Offaly.
As in most countries, energy consumption is low at night and high during the day. Aware of the substantial waste of night-time capacity, the ESB commissioned the Turlough Hill pumped storage hydro-electric station in 1968. This station, located in County Wicklow, pumps water uphill at night with the excess energy created by other stations, and releases it downhill during the day to turn turbines. The plant can generate up to 292 MW of power – but output is limited in terms of hours because of the storage capacity of the reservoir.
The 1970s brought about a continued increase in Ireland's industrialisation and with it, a greater demand for energy. This new demand was to be met by the construction of the country's two largest power stations – Poolbeg in 1971 and Moneypoint in 1979. The latter, in County Clare, remains Ireland's only coal-burning plant and can produce 915 MW – just shy of the 1015 MW capacity of Poolbeg. In 2002 and 2003, new independent stations were constructed – Huntstown Power (north Dublin) and Dublin Bay Power (Ringsend, Dublin).
In 1991, the ESB established the ESB Archive to store historical documents relating to the company and its impact on Irish life.
On 8 September 2003, two of the last remaining places in Ireland unconnected to the national grid – Inishturbot and Inishturk islands (off the coast of Galway)- were finally connected to the mains supply. Some islands are still powered by small diesel-run power stations.
60 wind farms are currently connected to the power system (July 2006) and have the capacity to generate 590 MW of power, depending on wind conditions. These wind farms are mainly owned by independent companies and landowners.
On 16 March 2005, the ESB announced that it was to sell its ShopElectric ( ESB Retail) chain of shops, with the exception of the Dublin Fleet Street and Cork Academy Street outlets, to Bank of Scotland (Ireland), converting them into main street banks. Existing staff were offered positions as bank tellers.
On 27 March 2008, the ESB announced a €22bn capital investment programme in renewable energy technology, with the aim to halve its carbon emissions within 12 years and achieve carbon net-zero by 2035.
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Tarbert and Great Island were sold to Endesa in 2008 under the asset-divestment strategy agreed with the CER. This aims to lessen ESB GWM's market dominant position.
The ESB also has significant holdings in wind generation, principally through its wholly owned subsidiary, Hibernian Wind Power.
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Siemens standard Diazed and the more modern Neozed fuses remain the standard type of fuse used in domestic and industrial installations and modern circuit breakers comply with German DIN standards.
British core colours red (live), black (neutral) and green (earth/ground) were used. These were later updated to brown (live), blue (neutral) and green-and-yellow (earth/ground) as per CENELEC and European standards.
Three-phase core colours also comply with EU standards: brown (L1), black (L2), grey (L3), blue (neutral), green & yellow (earth/ground)
British wiring accessories have generally been used in residential and light commercial installations e.g. junction boxes, light switches, wires and cables etc. However, in recent years European standard wiring accessories are beginning to replace some of these.
In industrial installations, Irish standards have always tended to follow German (DIN) and (VDE) norms.
Where a TT network connection is used, the entire supply must be protected by an RCD
Converting a TT supply to a TN-C supply "neutralisation" may only be carried out by an ESB engineer with the approval of ESB Networks. Under no circumstances should a homeowner, or an electrical contractor make any connection between the Earth/Ground and Neutral. To do so inappropriately could expose people to a risk of serious shock or electrocution.
It is now extremely rare to find a non-BS 1363 plug in use.
The 5-amp version of BS 546 is sometimes used for lamps controlled by a central switch or dimmer. They may also be used for other specialist purposes. It is, therefore, not advisable to connect an appliance to such a socket outlet and tourists should not use adaptors to connect to them if they are present in hotel bedrooms. They are exclusively for lighting or specialist purposes.
Industrial, heavy commercial and stage/studio installations use European standard IS EN 60309:1999 / IEC 60309 plugs and sockets. These are also used for stage and studio lighting, in recent preference to BS 546 15-amp fittings.
The distribution boards have been using DIN rail modular mounting systems for several decades. Even older fuse systems may be mounted on .
30 mA RCD protection is required for all socket outlets since 1981, however it may also be present on older installations.
Homes are typically wired as follows:
Edison screw fittings are not as common, but may be found on some imported lighting equipment, particularly from southern Europe.
Low voltage halogen bulbs use bipin fittings.
Standards are controlled by the ElectroTechnical Council of Ireland (ETCI) and the National Standards Authority of Ireland.
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