THE Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr Lowry, yesterday announced a £200 million expansion at Poolbeg Power Station, which will increase capacity at the gas-fired plant from 510 to 980 megawatts, making it the second-largest plant after Moneypoint.

Sanction for the project came following the successful conclusion of the ESB Cost and Competitiveness Review. Under the agreement with the unions just over 170 people will operate the 980Mw station compared to 250 staff in the 510Mw station in 1994.

Work on the project will begin next March and will be completed by December, 1999. Between 350 and 400 jobs will be created during the construction work.

The combined cycle gas turbine development will include a gas turbine, a steam turbine, waste heat boilers and ancillary equipment. A combined cycle plant is a more efficient method of producing electricity than a gas turbine plant alone as it utilises the steam from exhaust gas to produce even more power, an ESB spokesman said.

The investment at Poolbeg will mark a watershed in the history of the ESB because of liberalisation of the market. "It is the last power station which ESB will be constructing without having gone through a competitive process with other potential owners and operators," Mr Lowry said.

The expansion of the Poolbeg plant comes as electricity usage in Ireland is rising rapidly. Demand has risen by 6.4 per cent this year and consumption peaked at 3,172 megawatts on Tuesday, November 19th.

Mr Lowry said if demand continued to grow at 4 per cent or more there would be a need for new generating capacity by 2001 or 2002. "A competition for new generating capacity may need to be started sometime next year and ESB will have to compete for its share of the market," he said.