The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) has recommended the establishment of an electricity regulator, to address the issue of ESB dominance of the Irish electricity market .
The CER has already recommended the vertical separation of the ESB, into generation, transmission, distribution and supply divisions, in both an operational and commercial sense.
The paper says that breaking up the ESB's generating capacity into separate units would be the generally recognised approach to ending market dominance, but also put forward a number of reasons why this approach would not be "optimal" for Ireland.
It says that splitting the ESB's generating plants into different operations would take an extensive period and would not be completed by the time that the market is completely deregulated. It also pointed out that because some of the ESB's individual plants provide a large proportion of its generating capacity, breaking up the plants would still leave some plants with disproportionate influence on the market.
The CER recommends a regulatory approach to electrical deregulation, whereby a regulator would set guidelines for competition in the Irish electricity market.
