Bord na Móna plots speedy entry as new power retailer

Bord na Móna plans to launch a new utility selling energy to business customers for the first time, a move which brings it into direct competition with Electric Ireland, owned by rival State firm ESB, the Irish Examiner has learned.

Full details of the new venture are scant but the plans are revealed in a tender document that Bord na Móna issued late last week. 

However, the tender does reveal that Bord na Móna is in something of a hurry and has set rolling deadlines in the tender process of January 14, January 24, and January 27 and aims to have appointed the winning contractor "ideally", by the end of the month. 

It wants the utility to be up and running in July to August.         

The firm plans to end generating power from peat at its major power plant Edenderry, Co Offaly, in 2023 when it will burn biomass wood chip only, as part of strategy to reinvent itself as a renewables power firm. 

Bord na Móna owns outright and separately co-owns with the ESB a number of wind farm projects.

It is also also attempting to drive the development of solar power installations in the midlands. 

That suggests its new retail utility will be pitching itself as a supplier of clean energy to business customers.                   

The firm appears to have ruled out at this stage going head long into competition with Electric Ireland for households because the ESB-owned utility is a huge retailer selling into over 1m homes, as well as to many businesses.                               

"The tender process is part of Bord na Móna’s 10-year strategy to become an independent provider of renewable energy to corporate entities in Ireland," a Bord na  Móna spokesperson said.    

"The company has no plans to enter the domestic electricity market," the spokesperson added. 

According to the tender documents, Bord na Móna has in mind a contractor that can show "industry expertise specialising in ROI energy retail and wholesale electricity market design".

It also stipulates that "project management, stakeholder management, regulatory and policy expertise [is] required" . 

The move comes at a significant time for energy markets as the price of wholesale energy supplies have raced ahead amid widespread shortages across Europe of all types of energy, including wind and solar, this winter.     

The price on European markets of wholesale gas — which is used to fuel power plants in Ireland and in many other EU countries — has also reached record levels in recent weeks as the political tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine have worsened.

The price of European wholesale gas for delivery in February fell by 5.5% on Friday but nonetheless remains at elevated levels. 

Most European countries are braced to bring in more measures to help cushion their households from further hikes in utility bills.

Amid the shortages, more oil is being burned to fuel power stations and the price of global crude oil has risen.

Some experts predict that the price of Brent crude which is trading at over $80 (€70) a barrel will rise further. 

Meanwhile, EU plans to allow certain natural gas and nuclear energy projects to be classified as sustainable investments has come under fire from Green MEPs and climate groups. 

It is unclear how other types of fuel may be classified.