SPANISH ENERGY company Endesa is putting its Irish unit up for sale.

The company purchased four electricity plants from the ESB in 2008 for €450 million, and later indicated it would invest a further €450 million updating two of the plants at Tarbert, Co Kerry, and Great Island, Co Wexford.

However, Endesa has been selling its assets across Europe and Latin America in a bid to make savings.

It is also understood that it has concluded that Ireland is not among its core strategic markets.

The company, which is Spain’s second largest utility firm, saw a 20 per cent rise in its profits to €4.13 billion last year. The disposal of assets contributed almost €2 billion to this sum, it said yesterday as it announced its full-year earnings.

Endesa had planned to upgrade the diesel-powered plants in Tarbert and Great Island, replacing them with new facilities that were to run on more environmentally-efficient natural gas.

The company received planning permission from Bord Pleanála for the construction of the upgraded Great Island plant last August, and approval for the Tarbert project as late as last December.

Kerry County Council had estimated that the Tarbert project would create 500 jobs at the peak of construction.

Under the Endesa plan, the Great Island facility would have increased its electricity generating capacity from 240MW to 420MW, while plant output at Tarbert would have increased from 305MW to 450MW.

Endesa was the first foreign utility firm to enter the Irish market when its deal with the ESB was formally completed in January 2009. The deal also involved the purchase of ESB stations at Rhode, Co Offaly, and Tawnaghmore, Co Mayo.

That sale made the Spanish company Ireland’s second largest utility after the ESB. It had also bid for Viridian’s power plants in north Co Dublin, but that sale did not go ahead.

Endesa had been touted as a potential bidder for any utility assets earmarked for sale by the State Assets Review Group.

Its business is likely to have been affected by the carbon windfall levy introduced by Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan last year. It had earlier participated in the Commission for Energy Regulation’s consultation on the levy.