genre energy generation transmission and distribution . founded 1927 headquarters dublin ireland area served ireland international key people pat o doherty ceo ellvena graham chairman designate products electricity bandwidth solutions engineering consultants revenue 3.4 billion 2013 operating income 685 million 2013 net income 451 million 2013 total assets 12.782 billion 2013 owner government of ireland 95 % employee share ownership trust 5 % number of employees 7 870 1 website www.esb.ie the electricity supply board irish bord sol thair an leictreachais commonly known as the esb is a state owned 95 % electricity company operating in the republic of ireland . while historically a monopoly the esb now operates as a commercial semi state concern in a liberalised and competitive market . it is a statutory corporation whose members are appointed by the government of ireland . 2 contents 1 business areas 2 history 3 eirgrid 4 facilities 5 standards 6 employees 7 see also 8 references 8.1 print 9 external links business areas edit the esb is composed of several distinct separate and legally demarcated companies . by business area the principal companies are esb networks limited construction and maintenance of the electricity transmission system is managed by esb networks limited and the system is operated by independent state company eirgrid . esb generation and wholesale markets esb gwm operates a portfolio of power stations across the country along with holdings in wind and other renewables . wholesale market share is currently below fifty percent . esb electric ireland the esb title has been dropped per cer ruling previously esb customer supply and esb independent energy a regulated supply company functionally separate from esb networks limited and esb gwm is one of three companies as of 18 february 2009 operating in the domestic market . since 4 april 2011 the commission for energy regulation no longer sets esb electric ireland s prices the trade off for this is that the division will be required to rebrand to remove the esb name to remove confusion between the esb s role as operator of the electricity network and a supplier in that market . 3 from january 2012 it will be known simply as electric ireland and will not use the esb brand at all though it will remain a part of the esb . 4 esb international limited responsible for the company s unregulated activities . esbi limited principally provides electrical engineering consultancy services around the world . esbi is a dynamic company with holdings in many areas such as power generation joint ventures renewables development and computing consultancy . northern ireland electricity nie is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the electricity network in northern ireland and has been part of the esb since they purchased it from viridian in december 2010 . however the esb does not own the former supply business of nie which was retained by viridian . 5 history edit lough ree power station the esb was established by the fledgling irish free state government under the electricity supply act 1927 to manage ireland s electricity supply after the successful shannon scheme at ardnacrusha . the scheme was ireland s first large scale electricity plant and at the time it provided 80 % of the total energy demands of ireland . to give an idea of the growth in demand the output of ardnacrusha is now approximately two per cent of national peak demand for power . by 1937 plans were being finalised for the construction of several more hydro electric plants . the plans called for stations at poulaphouca golden falls leixlip all in leinster clady cliff and cathleen s fall between belleek and ballyshannon in county donegal carrigadrohid and inniscarra in county cork . all these new plants were completed by 1949 and together harnessed approximately 75 % of ireland s inland water power potential . many of these plants are still in operation however as could be expected with continuing growth in demand their combined capacity falls far short of ireland s modern needs . with ireland s towns and cities benefiting from electricity the new government pushed the idea of rural electrification . between 1946 and 1979 the esb connected in excess of 420 000 customers in rural ireland . the rural electrification scheme has been described as the quiet revolution because of the major socio economic change it brought about . the process was greatly helped in 1955 by the electricity supply amendment act 1955 . in 1947 the esb needing ever more generation capacity built the north wall station on a 7.5 acre 30 000 m2 site in dublin s industrial port area on the north side of the river liffey on the site of an old oil refinery . the original station consisted of one 12.5 mw steam turbine that was originally purchased for a power station at portarlington but instead used at north wall . other power stations built around this time included the peat fired stations at portarlington county laois and allenwood in county kildare . because of the risks of becoming dependent on imported fuel sources and the potential for harvesting and utilising indigenous peat the esb in partnership with bord na m na established those stations and esb also built lanesboro power station in 1958 . located in county longford the plant burns peat cut by bord na m na in the bogs of the irish midlands . in 1965 the shannonbridge station was commissioned . it is located in county offaly . the two stations have been replaced by new peat fired stations near the same locations and peat is also used to power the independent edenderry power plant in county offaly . as in most countries energy consumption is low at night and high during the day . aware of the substantial waste of night time capacity the esb commissioned the turlough hill pumped storage hydro electric station in 1968 . this station located in county wicklow pumps water uphill at night with the excess energy created by other stations and releases it downhill during the day to turn turbines . the plant can generate up to 292 mw of power but output is limited in terms of hours because of the storage capacity of the reservoir . the 1970s brought about a continued increase in ireland s industrialisation and with it a greater demand for energy . this new demand was to be met by the construction of the country s two largest power stations poolbeg in 1971 and moneypoint in 1979 . the latter in county clare remains ireland s only coal burning plant and can produce 915 mw just shy of the 1015 mw capacity of poolbeg . in 2002 and 2003 new independent stations were constructed huntstown power north dublin and dublin bay power ringsend dublin . in 1991 the esb established the esb archive to store historical documents relating to the company and its impact on irish life . on 8 september 2003 two of the last remaining places in ireland unconnected to the national grid inishturbot and inishturk islands off the coast of galway were finally connected to the mains supply . citation needed some islands are still powered by small diesel run power stations . citation needed 60 wind farms are currently connected to the power system july 2006 and have the capacity to generate 590 mw of power depending on wind conditions . these wind farms are mainly owned by independent companies and landowners . on 16 march 2005 the esb announced that it was to sell its shopelectric esb retail chain of shops with the exception of the dublin fleet street and cork academy street outlets to bank of scotland ireland converting them into main street banks . existing staff were offered positions as bank tellers . on 27 march 2008 the esb announced a 22bn capital investment programme in renewable energy technology with the aim to halve its carbon emissions within 12 years and achieve carbon net zero by 2035 1 . eirgrid edit main article eirgrid on 1 july 2006 a new state owned company eirgrid plc separate from all parties in the irish electricity sector took over responsibility for the operation of the irish national grid . it has its own separate board and it reports to the cer and its main shareholder the irish government . it was established as the operator of the irish transmission system with ownership remaining with esb networks . on 12 march 2007 the irish government policy on energy stated that ownership of the transmission system would be vested in eirgrid from end 2008 . eirgrid is responsible for balancing electricity consumption and generation and for the development of the power transmission system . eirgrid in conjunction with system operator northern ireland operates the all island wholesale electricity market . facilities edit west offaly power station generation capacity mw 6 plant location fuel year first commissioned 963 aghada county cork natural gas and distillate 1980 915 moneypoint county clare coal or oil 1985 470 poolbeg county dublin natural gas with distillate as an emergency back up 1971 292 turlough hill county wicklow pumped storage hydroelectricity 1968 262 north wall county dublin natural gas or distillate 1947 150 west offaly power county offaly peat 2004 100 lough ree power county longford peat 2004 96 marina county cork natural gas and distillate 1954 86 ardnacrusha county clare hydroelectricity 1929 65 erne cathaleen s fall and cliff county donegal hydroelectricity 1950 30 poulaphouca county wicklow hydroelectricity 1938 19 inniscarra dam county cork hydroelectricity 1957 8 carrigadrohid county cork hydroelectricity 1957 4 golden falls county kildare hydroelectricity 1938 4 leixlip county kildare hydroelectricity 1938 4 clady county donegal hydroelectricity 1959 tarbert and great island were sold to endesa in 2008 under the asset divestment strategy agreed with the cer . this aims to lessen esb gwm s market dominant position . the esb also has significant holdings in wind generation principally through its wholly owned subsidiary hibernian wind power . standards edit inniscarra hydro electric dam river lee co. cork the shannon scheme was the start of the esb s heavy reliance on german and swedish electro technology . siemens aeg and asea now abb equipment was used throughout the irish generation and distribution system . the irish system standardised on the 220 volt 50hz now 230 volt single phase and 380volt now 400 volt 3 phase supply systems which had been developed by siemens and aeg in germany . residential installations followed a mixture of british bs and german dve & din standards . siemens standard diazed and the more modern neozed fuses remain the standard type of fuse used in domestic and industrial installations and modern circuit breakers comply with german din standards . british core colours live red black neutral and green earth ground were used . these were later updated to live brown neutral blue and earth ground green & yellow as per cenelec and european standards . three phase core colours also comply with eu standards l1 brown l2 black l3 grey n blue earth ground yellow & green british wiring accessories have generally been used in residential and light commercial installations e.g. junction boxes light switches wires and cables etc. however in recent years european standard wiring accessories are beginning to replace some of these . in industrial installations irish standards have always tended to follow german din and dve norms . earthing grounding system tn c s is preferred . this is referred to in ireland as a neutralised supply . most homes and businesses are connected to such a system . where this system is used all metal pipe work must be bonded i.e. connected to the system s earth ground creating an equipotential zone . in such an installation earth straps and yellow and green earth wires can be seen connected to pipework under sinks in heating systems etc. tt system is used where tn c s earthing