Annual report 2006

Highlights for 2006

Power Generation

ESB Power Generation owns and operates generating stations in the Republic of Ireland totalling 4651MW. Power Generation's 2006 market share was 52%. This is 11% lower than our market share in 2005 and reflects the growth of the independent generation sector.

Energy costs account for over 50% of Power Generation's operating costs. ESB buys its fuel in the global fuel markets and fuel prices are benchmarked independently by CER against published market price indices. As in 2005, we successfully secured our fuel at or below these benchmark indices, thus contributing to ensuring energy is delivered at the least cost for the benefit of our customers.

Power Generation's 2006 capital expenditure programme amounted to €121m, primarily relating to spend on the Moneypoint Environmental Retrofit Project. This project, which is on target for completion in 2008, will provide major environmental benefits in terms of very significant reductions in emissions of Nitrogen Oxides, Sulphur Dioxide and dust from the plant.

ESB Customer Supply

ESB Customer Supply, which currently serves almost two million customers, operates as the Public Electricity Supplier (PES) offering a supply of electricity in the Irish retail market on terms approved by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER).

While the number of customers (business and residential) served by ESB Customer Supply increased during 2006, our market share reduced from 58% to 53%. This reflects increased competition, continued strong growth in the housing market and general growth in the economy.

In 2006 over 12 million bills were issued and over 15 million payments collected. The National Customer Contact Centre handled nearly 4 million calls while the Business Contact Centre processed over 50,000 queries.

Energy efficency continues to be a key area of focus and during 2006, ESB Customer Supply helped customer save more than 360GWh, or approximately 46.4 million in energy savings.

ESB Networks - Serving all electricity customers

ESB Networks owns, builds and maintains the Transmission and Distribution electricity networks for the country as a whole, and also provides necessary services to the electricity market. All electricity customers in the Republic of Ireland are customers of ESB Networks, regardless of their supplier.

Although profits were down 27% this year, 2006 was a successful year for Networks in operational terms, with a significant investment in the national electricity infrastructure and a record number of customers connected to the electricity network. During 2006 €600 million was invested in the programme to upgrade, develop and renew the Distribution and Transmission networks. Since 2001 ESB Networks has invested €3.7 billion on network renewal.

For the first time in its history ESB connected more than 100000 customers in a single year to the electricity networks.

ESB International

ESB International (ESBI) is structured as a group of companies and comprises a range of businesses operating in the competitive market plate. The key business activities are ESB Independent Generation (ESBIG) and ESB Independent Energy (ESBIE), ESBI Engineering, ESBI Facility Management (ESBIFM) and ESBI New Investments (ESBII).

ESB Independent Energy continues to develop its market position in 2006 and now accounts for 14.7% of the Republic of Ireland market. In Northern Ireland ESBIE held its market share at 20% of the total market.

ESB Independent Generation's portfolio of plant performed ahead of target during the year with the exception of Coolkeeragh, which suffered a significant plant outage of its steam turbine. The Renewables business delivered to plan with Derrybrien 60MW windfarm starting commercial operation in January and a 26MW windfarm in Mountain Lodge, Co Cavan starting construction in October.

ESBI Engineering delivered good performance in 2006 with strong growth both at home and in international markets.

ESBI New Investments achieved financial close for the Marchwood project in December.

Download reports

The following reports are in PDF format

• Accounts 2006 (PDF | 354KB)
• Tuarascáil Chomhaltaí an Bhoird 2006 (PDF | 379KB)
• Chairman's Review 2006 (PDF | 69KB)
• Ráiteas an Chathaoirligh 2006 (PDF | 70KB)
• Chief Executive's Review 2006 (PDF | 119KB)
• Athbhreithniú an Phríomhfheidhmeannaigh 2006 (PDF | 125KB)
• Complete Document 2006 (PDF | 1.4MB)
• Tuarascáil Bhliantúil & Cuntais BSL 2006 (PDF | 1.4MB)

Related links

Can't open these documents?

You need Adobe Reader to open this PDF. You can get it here: