The Competition Authority has called for the splitting up of the ESB. It wants its power generation section carved up into competing groups of electricity plants. It also urges the Government to remove ownership of the electricity grid from the ESB.
In a report published this morning, the competition body welcomed the recent announcement by the energy regulator that the ESB planned to dispose of 1300 megawatts worth of its plants by 2010. But it said this did not go far enough to ensure that a fully competitive market developed, and called for further ESB disposals.
The authority said measures proposed in the Government's recent energy Green Paper - such as increased interconnection and freeing up the ESB land bank - were 'insufficient'. It said the ESB controlled the price of electricity 99% of the time, and its dominance made the Irish market unattractive for other energy companies.
The authority added that the ESB's dominance made regulating the market more complex and costly.
It concluded that the current market structure had contributed to high prices, poor availability and reliability and limited development of renewable energy. 'This system, if allowed to persist, will cost consumers and industry even more dearly in the future,' it said.
