Bord Gáis
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Bord Gáis Éireann - The Irish Gas Board (BGE), normally branded as Bord Gáis, is the main supplier and distributer of pipeline natural gas in the Republic of Ireland. The company is currently building an extensive network across the Republic. The company supplies gas to domestic and industrial customers on a fully regulated basis. The tariffs for customers are determined by the Commission for Energy Regulation.
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[edit] Origins
Bord Gáis Éireann was established as a semi-state company by the Irish government in 1975 to replace a series of private sector small city-based gas companies, some of whom had got into financial trouble. The company was originally established as a private limited company by shares, Bord Gáis Éireann Teoranta, before being converted to a statutory corporation under the Gas Act 1976, the primary legislation under which BGE operates.
The oldest of the small private companies was the Alliance and Dublin Consumers' Gas Company, which had been founded in the early nineteenth century by Daniel O'Connell, a prominent Irish politician and Lord Mayor of Dublin. After intially supplying the company (known simply as Dublin Gas by the 1980s) with wholesale natural gas, Bord Gáis acquired the assets of the company when it went into recievership in 1987, including its head office in D'Olier Street, Dublin. Other town gas companies were acquired by Bord Gáis in Cork, Limerick, Clonmel, and Kilkenny. BGE is headquartered in Cork city, though it also has had a substantial prescence in Dublin since the acquisition of the assets of Dublin Gas. In 2002 Bord Gáis sold the landmark Dublin Gas head office building in Dublin to Trinity College Dublin, and moved to purpose built premises in Foley Street which is now the main offices of BGÉ Energy Supply.
For nearly two decades the main supply of gas available for Bord Gáis came from a Marathon Petroleum owned gasfield near Kinsale, off the Cork coast. This gas field had been found in 1971, the same year as the foundation of the Nuclear Energy Board. This gas field comes ashore at Inch in Co. Cork.
[edit] Network and supply
The company has a network between Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford with a number of spurs, this network is connected to Scotland via two separate interconnectors and also has a spur to the Isle of Man which supplies Manx Electricity. Most of its modern gas supply is imported. A new gas field known as the Corrib off the Mayo coast is scheduled to come onstream by 2008, however Bord Gais will only be purchasing a small amount off the offtake, the majority will be traded on the International Petroleum Exchange.
[edit] Northern Ireland
BG has an ambitious plan to develop the gas market in Northern Ireland. A pipeline from Carrickfergus to Derry was completed in October 2004 and now serves Coolkeeragh Power Station. A second pipeline, known as the South-North pipeline, was commisioned in October 2006. It runs from Gormanston in the Republic to join the Carrick/Derry pipeline near Antrim creating an all-Ireland network and providing redundancy in case of problems with either Scotland - Northern Ireland pipeline or the Scotland - Republic of Ireland interconnectors.
The Northern Ireland Authority for Energy Regulation has awarded BG a licence to supply homes and businesses in the towns and cities near the two pipelines - Antrim, Armagh, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Banbridge, Craigavon, Derry, Limavady and Newry - where the local subsidiaries of BG use the trading name of firmus energy. On 1 December 2005, firmus launched their first supply in Northern Ireland, to the large Michelin tyre factory in Ballymena. On 25 April 2006, the Belfast Telegraph reported the connection of firmus' first residential customers in Derry.
The decision to award this licence was widely disputed and Phoenix Gas, the incumbent in Belfast and the surrouning area, launched a judicial review of the decision to award it to BGE, they claimed that it was more of a political decision and they claimed that Bord Gais will lose a significant amount of money and the business will be loss making.
[edit] Retail operations
Bord Gáis Energy Supply has twelve stores (branded Energy Supply Stores) around the country, however they are run on a franchise basis and not by BGÉ itself. In 2002 BGÉs Natural Gas Showroom in D'Olier Street, operated by the company itself, was closed, in 2006 its Cork company-owned showroom was also closed.
[edit] Deregulation of the Irish gas market
The major public utility companies underwent major reform in the early 2000s, following the creation of the Commission for Energy Regulation. In July 2004 Bord Gáis, as part of national deregulation, the customer support and network building parts of the company were ringfenced in to two new business units Bord Gáis Energy Supply (BGES) and Bord Gáis Distribution (BGD), now branded together with Bord Gáis' Transportation and Transmission departments as Bord Gáis Networks. The latter business unit now works with all the companies in the Irish gas market as well as with BGES. Although full legal separation in to two new companies is required under EU directives Bord Gais have so far failed to comply. The ringfencing measures are purely cosmetic and there is no physical separation of functions.
Currently all business customers are eligible to change gas supplier from Bord Gáis Energy Supply to an alternative shipper. Residential customers are not, though following a decision of the CER in 2004, customers in certain towns in the West and Midlands have their natural gas supplied by Flogas Natural Gas rather than Bord Gáis Energy Supply.
[edit] Subsidiary companies
Bord Gais operates a number of subsidiary companies BG Cogen and Combined Heat and Power business and Aurora Telecom a failed telco venture which is now a dark fibre leasing company, both are loss making.
[edit] Main offices
- HQ - Gasworks Road, Cork
- Energy Supply, IT & Shared Services - Foley Street, Dublin 1
- Networks - Arena Road, Sandyford Business Park, Dublin 18
- Firmus Energy - Kilbegs Business Park, Antrim BT41 4NN
[edit] Market share
As of 2005 BGES has over five hundred thousand customers.
