Aghada power station is a gas-fired power station located near the entrance of

Cork Harbour Cork Harbour () is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee (Ireland), River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational ...

Aghada Aghada () is a village and civil parish in County Cork, Ireland. It is situated on the eastern side of Cork Harbour, around 12 km by road south of Midleton. The civil parish of Aghada consists of several small villages and townlands inclu ...

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

. It was built at this location in order to use gas that had been discovered at the nearby

Kinsale Head gas field The Kinsale Head gas field is a depleted offshore natural gas field in the Celtic Sea, located off the southern coast of County Cork, Ireland. Discovered in 1971 near the Old Head of Kinsale, it met Ireland's gas needs until 1996. The gas fiel ...

, from which gas was extracted from 1978 until its depletion in 2020. The station has been operational since 1980, and in 2010 underwent a major upgrade which saw the output capacity almost double thanks to a new combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT). According to its owner, the

ESB Group The Electricity Supply Board (ESB; ) is a state owned (95%; the rest are owned by employees) electricity company based in Ireland with operations worldwide. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concer ...

, these upgrades saw it become one of the "largest and most efficient" power stations in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

History

Aghada generating station began operation in the early 1980s with a capacity of . The plant consists of a single conventional steam turbine and three open-cycle gas turbines. The plant is fuelled with natural gas, which is supplied from the Bórd Gais network and diesel oil is used as an alternative fuel when natural gas supply is low.

2010 upgrade

In May 2010, the

Minister for Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral re ...

Micheál Martin Micheál Martin (; born 16 August 1960) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician serving as Taoiseach since January 2025, having previously held the position from 2020 to 2022. Martin served as Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Min ...

, opened a new combined cycle gas turbine at the plant. The new CCGT was a major upgrade to the power station and provided a new base-load generating capacity to meet rising power demand in Ireland. With a capacity of the new CCGT brought the total capacity of the power plant from to . The CCGT generates enough power to meet the electricity needs of around 450,000 homes. The CCGT is a GT26 provided by

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

. The upgrade was part of the ESB's portfolio restructuring programme, which included the closure and divestment of older and less efficient power stations. ESB also installed two grid batteries; a 19MW/38MWh in 2022, and a 150MW/300MWh in 2024. Following the upgrades, Aghada consists of the following four types of technology:

Proposals

In September 2022 the ESB announced that they were to submit a planning application with Cork County Council before the end of 2022 for the construction of a new open cycle gas turbine. The OCGT is to be within the existing grounds of Aghada power station and will be expected to generate .

References

{{Electricity generation in Ireland Natural gas-fired power stations in the Republic of Ireland