About ESB
Our history, our people and our principles
Ardnacrusha
- Location: Castlebanks, Ardnacrusha, Co. Clare
- Technology: Hydro
- Capacity: 86MW
- Commissioned: 1929 & 1934
ESB's first power station was commissioned in 1929 at Ardnacrusha in Co. Clare. It is Ireland's largest river hydroelectric scheme and is operated on a purpose built canal connected to the River Shannon.
The generating plant at Ardnacrusha is made up of three vertical-shaft Francis turbine generators which were commissioned in 1929 and one vertical-shaft Kaplan turbine generator, commissioned in 1934.
The annual output of 332,000MWh is generated at 10.5 kilovolts (kV) and is transformed to 40kV for local distribution and 110kV for long distance transmission.
When first built, the 86MW plant was adequate to meet the electricity demand of the entire country. Today, Ardnacrusha represents c. 2% of ESB's total installed capacity.
Related links
Photo Gallery
Click images to zoom, click link to download.
Can't open this document?
You need Adobe Reader to open this PDF. You can get it here:
