Contradictory claims are being made by the ESB and the developers of the National Conference Centre over the willingness of the State electricity company to supply power to the Dublin docklands project.
Treasury Holdings has claimed that EU funding of £26 million for the centre is being jeopardised because the ESB is unable to power it for up to a year after its planned opening on December 31st, 2000.
The property company is lobbying members of the select committee on the Electricity Regulation Bill, seeking an amendment which would allow the regulator, Mr Tom Reeves, to grant a licence for the building of a £17 million 20 megawatt combined heat and power (CHP) plant at the 51-acre Spencer Dock site in Dublin's Docklands. It would form part of the £104 million conference centre project.
CHP is regarded as a more energy-efficient system than conventional oil-burning power stations and Treasury, which also has wind energy interests wants CHP to be included in the definition of renewable and alternative energy. "Our interest in CHP derives from the fact that we are building the NCC and the ESB cannot power it conventionally until one year after the proposed opening date [December 31st, 2000] because of their workload scheduling," Treasury Holdings states in its letter. "All efforts (including political) to date have failed to shift them. If the NCC is not operating before the ESB's date, the £26 million (€33 million) EU grant will be lost and the NCC will never be built," the company adds.
But an ESB spokesman said yesterday evening the allegation was "quite simply untrue" that it would be unable to power the centre within one year of its completion. He said that last summer, the ESB initiated a study into the power needs for the centre with Treasury Holdings and the Dublin Docklands Authority.
He said "vital information" necessary to provide that need had not been forthcoming.
"We are absolutely committed to the supply of electricity to the National Conference Centre. We fully appreciate that it is a very important development.
"We are absolutely confident that we can meet the needs of the centre, both in the medium and the long term."
Both Mr Ivan Yates the Fine Gael spokesman on public enterprise, and the Labour spokesman on public enterprise, Mr Emmet Stagg raised the matter at yesterday's committee hearing but the proposed amendment is likely to be aired at the next committee hearing.
Mr Stagg said it was "a crazy situation" that the ESB's workload was such that it could not meet the power supply requirement.
