the Feb/March 2012 edition of EM Would you prefer

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Welcome to the
Feb/March 2012
edition of EM
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The newspaper for
February / March 2012
www.esb.ie/em
Top marks
for Poulaphouca
Page 28
ESB crews rally in wake
of storms and hurricanes
When hurricane force
winds hit the North of Ireland
and Scotland early in the New
Year, ESB Networks crews found
themselves on emergency repair
duties at home and abroad. In
addition to restoring supply to
ESB customers, Networks Technicians also helped make repairs
in Northern Ireland and Scotland, following requests for help
from NIE, Scottish Power and
Scottish and Southern Energy
(SSE).
While the winter of 2011 was
nowhere near as cold as the big
freeze of 2010, severe storms
and hurricane force winds hit
this country and the UK in midDecember and early January.
Services to more than 80,000
customers were impacted by the
combined forces of Hurricane
Friedhelm (known in Scotland as
‘Hurricane Bawbag’) on December 12th, Cyclone Ulli on January 2nd and two lesser storms
on December 28th and January
5th, said ESB Networks Distribution and Customer Services
Head, John O’Gorman.
By working early in the morning and late in the evening, ESB
Network technicians quickly restored power to ESB customers.
Staff also volunteered to help
return power to thousands of
homes in Northern Ireland and
Scotland who were affected by
Bawbag and Ulli. Paying tribute,
John said, “The crews showed
extreme professionalism, excellent safety awareness and high
levels of motivation. It is during fault response work like this
that the true character and spirit
of ESB Networks staff comes to
the fore”.
Continued on page 16
A fond farewell
Page 03
Olympics 2012
Services & Electric Ireland
Page 13
ESB Networks
Training Centre
ESB Networks LTD
Page 18
In this issue
n News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
n Services & Electric Ireland. . . . .
n ESB Networks Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . .
n ESB Energy International. . . . . .
n Health & Habitat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
n Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
02
.11
15
20
30
35
2
News
February/March 2012 www.esb.ie/em
Editor’s
desk
bernie
healy
Hello and welcome
to the Feb/March edition of EM.
It was good to return to Turlough Hill and Liffey Stations recently to take a look at all the work that has been
carried out. It was quite a nostalgic visit for me as I had
worked there for a number of years in the ’90’s and the
narrow country roads of West Wicklow and Kildare are
very familiar to me. The trips from Turlough Hill to Poulaphouca, Golden Falls and Leixlip were always a pleasure,
through beautiful scenery and pretty villages. There are so
many interconnecting roads you could change your route
over and back.
The staff were always welcoming and it was with that
special ‘welcome back’ that I met a number of them while
working on the feature in this issue of EM.
The setting for the Liffey Stations is very scenic, particularly around Blessington Lakes, but it is further enhanced
by the well kept grounds and the excellent condition of the
amenity centres provided by ESB. I know from speaking
to colleagues that ESB’s contribution to this area over the
years has been very welcome and locals and visitors alike
are very appreciative of the support of the company in enhancing the facilities. Many of the staff themselves, both
current and retired, live locally and have and continue to
be involved in supporting local initiatives.
Not unlike other power station ‘communities’, good relationships have meant that, working together, a lot has been
accomplished for the benefit of all.
Kind regards
EM welcomes news, views, articles,
letters, photos and feedback on any
topic. All submitted articles should
preferably be e-mailed.
Please contact:
Bernie Healy, Editor
T (01) 702 7402 (office)
extn. 27402 (internal)
M 087 261 5514
F (01) 676 0727
internal outlook address:
Healy.Bernie
external email address:
[email protected]
Anne Deignan
Administrative Assistant
T (01) 702 6282 (office)
extn. 26282 (internal)
M 087 280 6615 (mobile)
F (01) 676 0727
internal outlook address:
Deignan.Anne
external email address:
[email protected]
Closing date:
Competitions and crosswords must
be returned by March 13th.
Deadlines: The deadline for articles,
photos, etc. for the next issue
is March 13th. We are always
delighted to receive items for
publication.
Published by ESB Corporate
Communications.
Produced by
Zahra Media Group
First Floor, Zoe House,
Church Road, Greystones,
Co. Wicklow.
E [email protected]
www.esb.ie
The views expressed in EM are not
necessarily those of ESB.
ESB supports recycling
www.repak.ie Please recycle this paper
Claire Kenna
Womens’ Learning and Networking
receives Fellowship Event hosted by Services and Electric
Ireland Equality & Diversity Group
Claire Kenna, ESB Pensions pictured above with
Marie Collins, Group Pensions Manager on the
occasion of Claire receiving her Fellowship from
the Institute of Pensions Managers.
Corporate Centre
Christmas Draw
raises nearly €8k for
charities
A staggering
€7,900 was raised
from the Corporate
Centre
Charity
Raffle held in Head
Office during the
week before Christmas. It is all down to
the outstanding generosity of ESB staff.
No words can convey our thanks to you
all. You have once again demonstrated
that ESB staff are a caring, responsible
and generous group of people. The majority of the proceeds were donated to
Pieta House (for Suicide Prevention) and
Trust (a charity for the homeless)
Prizes included Green Fees, Match Tickets, Hotel Breaks and Luxury Hampers.
Congratulations to all the winners.
Corporate Centre Charity Team
Draw results
sportsco draw
results
DECEMBER DRAW
PRIZE NAME
€3,000 Ellen Ryan, Retired
€1,500 Robert Gallagher, Retired
€500
Molly Carke, Retired
€200
Ita Martin, Retired
€200
Joseph Cooney, Inchicore
€200
Peter Whelan, Retired
€200
Kieran Garrett,VSS
€200
Robert Masterson, Poolbeg
JANUARY DRAW
€3,000Desmond Sharkey, Retired
€1,500 Brigid O’Donovan, HO
€500Thomas Carty, Retired
€200Susan O’Hora, Retired
€200
Kevin Glennon, Retired
€200
Eilish Logan, Electric Ireland
€200David Foley, Retired
€200
Brian Kelly, Electric Ireland
RESULTS OF MADSOC
DRAW
NOVEMBER 2011
PRIZE NAME
€2000
Bernie Byrne
€150
Paul Ennis
€150
Vincent Cowley
€150
Ian Ring
€150
Catherine Leen
€150
Patrick O’Keeffe
In 2009, the Equality &
Diversity Office developed
a Womens’ Learning and
Networking Programme
entitled Empowering Women with 2020 Vision. The
purpose of the programme
is to promote and cultivate
the growth and advancement of women in the organisation. In conjunction
with the Equality & Diversity Office, Services and
Electric Ireland Equality
& Diversity Group hosted
an event for female staff in
their area on 13th December 2011. The workshop
was facilitated by Paula
King, Executive Coaching
Solutions Ltd.
The theme for the twohour interactive workshop
was The Psychology of Behaviour and Communication in a World of Change
and covered:
•Techniques to assist
you to handle change in
your life.
•Importance of emotional resilience in a world of
change .
•Behaviour and awareness of trigger points.
• Communication styles.
Valerie Little, HR Manager,
Service and Electric Ireland
opened the event, which was attended by 30 staff. Brid Horan,
Executive Director, Services
and Electric Ireland joined the
group and shared some of her
experiences in ESB. n
If you would like to organise a similar
programme in your area, please
contact Joyce Farrell, Equality & Diversity Manager – Ext 27254 or Bernie
O’Connor, Equality & Diversity Office
– Ext 27239 or Equality&Diversity@
esb.ie for further
information on the
Women’‘Learning
and Networking
Programme.
Would you like to receive
a Netbook version of EM to
replace your printed copy?
The advantages are:
You are helping to save the planet. You are
helping to reduce printing costs.
AND You will be entered into a draw every
three issues for an iPad.
To received a Netbook version of EM please send your name,
address AND email to: [email protected]
If you are not receiving the correct number of
copies of EM at your location please contact Bernie Healy at the email above.
How to make the most of IT
by Eddie Nally
News
Disability Traineeship
Programme 2011
The Disabilty Traineeship Programme 2011 recently concluded
with a presentation to the successful
trainees by our new Chief Executive,
Pat O’Doherty. At the presentation,
Pat also announced he was approving the Disability Traineeship Programme for a further three years.
The 2011 programme attracted
nearly 100 applicants of which 45
were called for interview and, with
the support of management and
staff, we had eight placement opportunities across ESB:
• Four placements in ESB Networks.
• Three placements in Services and
Electric Ireland.
• A placement in ESBI, Stephen’s
Court.
This year, the programme celebrated its sixth year in existence and
to date it has provided 66 disabled
participants the opportunity to gain
valuable work experience, improve
social skills, build confidence and improve their employment prospects.
All the participants have indicated
that their involvement has increased
their confidence and self-belief.
Out of this year’s eight trainees,
one got a two-year contract with an
external employer and another was
retained on a further six-month temporary contract in ESB.
The ESB Disability Traineeship
Programme has attracted very favourable comment from disabilityrelated organisations and statutory
agencies, notably from the National
Disability Authority.
ESB staff, at all levels, have gained
much learning and insight into disability awareness through this programme and this has been extremely
valuable to us in creating and promoting an inclusive work environment for all our staff in ESB. n
Chief Executive Pat O’Doherty and Executive Director HR & Sustainability John Campion
pictured with the trainees, Team Leaders and mentors.
Pat O’Doherty, John
Campion, Joyce
Farrell, Bernie
O’Connor and Niall
O’Hanlon of the
Equality and Diversity
office and members
of the programme.
Medical Provident Fund –
Remittance Advices
(details of your payment)
Do you have an internal or external email address?
In order to improve our carbon
footprint, why not send Medical
Provident Fund your email address and we will issue your remittance advices electronically.
There are many advantages:
• Your carbon footprint is reduced, as there is no paper
involved. Your money is sent
to the bank electronically and
your remittance advice is sent
to you electronically.
• You will receive your remittance
advice, in advance of the money
going into your bank account.
• There is no postage or printing
cost.
• All your remittances are to
hand, electronically, when you
need them for your tax return.
This note applies only to those
who have not already sent their
email address to the MPF. n
Chief Executive Pat O’Doherty
and PA to CE Noreen Walsh
pictured with Padraig and his
wife Marie.
Utility Endesa – this following an agreement with CER to facilitate new market
entry and reduce ESB Generation dominance.
In relation to Safety, Padraig led by example right from the start. Over the past
10 years, there has been a near tenfold
decrease in the number of injuries to
ESB staff.
Under Corporate Strategy 2020,
ESB became the first energy company in Europe to set a date of 2035 to
de-carbonise its generation activities.
Padraig also set a goal to make
Pat wishes
ESB an exemplary company in susPadraig well on
his retirement. tainability. In October 2011, he was
presented, on behalf of ESB, with
which would occur during
certification to the new Business Workhis time as Chief Executive. Through
ing Responsibly Sustainability Standard.
CCR and PACT, Padraig clearly saw
ESB was among only four Irish compathe huge benefits of working in Partnies to achieve this.
nership with the Trade Unions based
Padraig ensured that ESB and its staff
on a shared understanding and mutual
were able to make a broader contribution
respect.
to Irish society and one illustration of this
Padraig was appointed Chief Execuis the strong portfolio of sponsorships
tive in 2002 and the CE said that ESB’s
which we have built North and South.
achievements since then are ample tesPadraig also very actively supported
tament to Padraig’s extraordinary leadESB’s staff development fund, Electricership and guidance:
Aid which provides aid to projects in
• ESB’s enterprise value has been indeveloping countries as well as nationcreased from €2.6 billion to €12 billion.
ally. He established ElectricAid Ireland
• The company has paid dividends of
through which ESB and ESB staff sup€1.2 Billion to the Exchequer.
port those working to counter homeless• We have invested €1 billion annually,
ness and suicide. He also introduced the
most of it in Ireland in vital energy inESB Disability Traineeship Programme,
frastructure.
which is now in its sixth year.
• A ground-breaking agreement was
In 2007 Padraig decided to mark ESB’s
reached on ESB’s pension fund difficul80th birthday by refurbishing a number
ties.
of schools in the most deprived suburbs
• Our Networks have been renewed to
of Accra in Ghana. The schools were utbest international standards.
terly derelict, with no electricity, sanita• The electricity market has been radition or running water. ESB project mancally transformed and the All Island
agers and volunteers worked on wiring,
Single Electricity Market is now firmly
tiling, painting, landscaping and compleembedded.
tion of the schools. Today, thousands of
• Our Generation portfolio has been
children attend these schools in unimmodernised and a significant wind reaginably improved circumstances. Some
newables business has been added to
200 volunteers from ESB went to Ghana
our conventional generation fleet.
over the period of the schools’ projects,
• The Electric Ireland brand has been
raising significant funds themselves and
successfully launched and ESB now has
for each of them it was a truly great peran All Island Electricity and Gas retail
sonal experience.
business.
Concluding his speech the Chief Ex• Through ESB International we have
ecutive reminded the huge attendance
expanded outside of our home market
that Padraig’s tenure has been a period of
with investments in Spain, Great Britunprecedented change in our company
ain and Northern Ireland to a point
and in our industry.
where ESBI now has an annual turnoIn reply Padraig thanked the Board,
ver of €100 million.
management and staff for their support
• ESB acquired NIE, the Northern Ireover the years in bringing ESB to the sucland transmission and distribution busicessful company it is today. He outlined
ness of the Viridian Group. At a value
the good memories and successes shared
of in excess of €1.2Bn, this is the biggest
but also one of his darkest moments –
corporate transaction in our history.
when staff colleagues Mike Healy and
The Chief Executive said that for PaPat McCrohan lost their lives in a tragic
draig a core value of maintaining the
accident in Tarbert Power Station, early
financial strength of ESB and this has
in his tenure in 2003. His continuing conbeen done despite the worst recession
tact with their families has been somein decades. In the past year alone, we
thing he cherishes.
have raised over €1.3Bn – money that
He spoke about good friends and relawill be used to finance vital investment
tionships through the years and rememfor the support of this economy and the
bered colleagues sadly passed. Padraig
benefit of the public.
warmly wished Pat O’Doherty, as the
Padraig also oversaw some very stranew Chief Executive, and the managetegic disposals including:
ment and staff of ESB continued success
• ESB Retail to Bank of Scotland
in the years ahead.
• The UK Contracts business
We wish Padraig, Marie and family hap• The Public Lighting business to Scotpiness and health as they move into the
tish and Southern Energy and
next phase of their lives together. n
• The Sale of Power Stations to Spanish
Retirement of Chief Executive,
Padraig McManus
Management and staff, current and retired, Secretaries General
and Regulators North and South past
and present, Trade Unions Leaders and
distinguished guests gathered in Head
Office to pay tribute and bid farewell
to our former Chief Executive, Padraig
McManus on Thursday January 19th
last.
Newly appointed Chief Executive,
Pat O’Doherty, welcomed Padraig’s
wife Marie, children Mark and Trina,
daughter-in-law Anna, as well as his
brothers and sisters to the event.
The Chief Executive commenced his
speech by saying that “by any reckoning Padraig has given extraordinary
leadership and service to ESB”.
He went on to highlight the following
aspects of Padraig’s family, education
and career:
The son of Jim McManus, an ESB engineer from Newry and Ann Reid from
Belfast, Padraig was born in Dublin but
the family moved to Naas when he was
seven years old. He adopted Kildare as
his true home.
From a young age Padraig was a keen
GAA follower, taking part in both hurling and football in his school and college
years.
After studying Electrical Engineering at UCD, Padraig and a number of
his fellow-graduates went on to join
ESB. Amongst them was our dear colleague, Luke Shinnors. The loss of Luke
last year was a huge blow particularly
to Padraig as their friendship went back
to their early secondary school days in
Naas.
Padraig joined ESB in 1973 and in
1975 he took a year’s leave of absence
to work in Germany where he remained
until the end of 1976.
After a period working in Saudi Arabia, he returned to Dublin in 1983 to
work on the Jubail project. From 1986
to 1990 Padraig worked in Ghana on a
World Bank project, based in the capital
Accra.
In 1994, Padraig was appointed to
the position of HR Manager Business
Services and played a key role in the
CCR negotiations which delivered
huge change and cost savings for ESB.
In 1997 he was appointed MD of ESB
International.
In 2001 he became Group Commercial Director and in this role he led
the all-important PACT negotiations
which continued the transformation of
the company. PACT paved the way for
many of the changes and developments
3
4
News
Italian society celebrates
another successful year
The ESB Italian Society celebrated Christmas and another successful year for the club on Friday
December 9th in Head Office.
Founded two years ago, the Italian Society has been providing language lessons for complete beginners and for improvers, delivered
by Italian teacher Bridget O’Brien
and organised efficiently by Anne
Slevin. Indeed, the occasion was
used by Society Presidente Steve
Johnson to thank Bridget and Anne
for their classes which are proving
very popular and of course are being renewed in 2012.
ESB, especially through HR and
Sustainability Director John Campion, has assisted the society from
the start in modest but valued ways
such as making rooms available for
lessons. This is much appreciated
as it makes it easier for staff to indulge their interest in things Italian
without major logistical effort.
Throughout 2011, as in 2010, the
ESB Italian Society has maintained
very cordial relations with the Italian Cultural Institute (Istituto Ital-
iano di Cultura, IIC) which, very
conveniently, is located at 11 Fitzwilliam Square East, just up the
road from ESB Head Office.
At the Christmas event, IIC Director Angela Tangianu was on
hand with her colleagues Claudia
Iacoponelli and Caterina Muratore, and very kindly provided the
pannetone and pandoro, as well as
some delicious Italian white wine
to mark the year end. Attendees
and guests were able to compare
Christmas traditions in Ireland and
in Italy.
Director Tangianu recalled how
last year Italy celebrated its 150th
anniversary of unification, with
many cultural events organised
in Italy, worldwide, and indeed in
Dublin by the IIC. Many ESB Italian Society members have also participated in activities at IIC, which
has a well-stocked library and offers lessons and formal courses. In
fact in 2011 IIC kindly hosted the
ESB Italian Society on a number
of occasions for films, lectures and
some tasty lunches. n
At the ESB Italian Society Christmas celebration (l-r): Frank Gilmartin, Bridget O’Brien, Peter
Matthews, Anne Slevin, Rob Sadlier, Margaret Dunphy, John Traynor, Istituto Italiano di Cultura
di Dublino Director Angela Tangianu, Sarah Phelan and Steve Johnson.
NIE repair ice-damaged line
December brought sleet,
snow and gales to the Sperrin
Mountain area of Northern Ireland. The resulting ice accretion
formed ice collars that were more
than 16cm in diameter on
some lines and that brought
down one of Northern Ireland’s main 275,000 volt
transmission lines.
It took six days and
around 80 people work-
ing in sub-zero conditions from
early morning to late at night to
make all necessary repairs. NIE
and ESB linesmen and contractors were involved in the effort.
The line, which runs from
Magherafelt to Coolkeeragh,
the Derry power station, was back in
service six days
after the damage
occurred. n
ESB ecars to host
Fully Charged
2012 international
EV summit
The Green eMotion EU project, focused on the development of electric cars in Europe, was launched in
Dublin last March. As a lead partner
in the project, ESB ecars is delighted
to be hosting Green eMotion’s inaugural international event, Fully
Charged 2012, in the Convention
Centre Dublin this summer.
Fully Charged 2012 is a satellite event of the prestigious EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF 2012)
and it and the forum are highlight
events of the Dublin, City of Science
2012 celebrations. Delegates will be
in a position to attend both conferences as Fully Charged 2012 takes
place on Wednesday July 11th and
ESOF 2012 is being launched that
evening.
The one day Electric Vehicle (EV)
conference will bring together major thinkers and developers from
the electric vehicle industry and an
impressive panel of speakers is being finalised. There will also be a
display of electric cars, EV products
and related services. In addition,
members of the public will also have
the opportunity to test drive EVs on
the streets of Dublin.
Ireland was considered an ideal
location because Dublin has been
nominated European City of Science for 2012 and the city authorities are very active in rolling-out
EV-charging infrastructure, while
ESB ecars is active in international
EV standards bodies and there are
many Irish companies and thirdlevel institutions participating in EV
research and trials. n
Check out the websites www.fullycharged2012.com and www.dublinscience2012.ie for more details.
ESB Benevolent
Association
AGM
The annual general
meeting of the ESB
Benevolent Association
for 2009 and 2010 has
been re-scheduled. It will
now take place at 5pm on
Thursday February 16th
in meeting room DG43,
ESB Head Office.
All are welcome to
attend.
Retirement planning seminars
Participants at the events on 10th & 11th November, 2011 are: Liam Carter, Networks,
Gertrude Carter, Tom Colgan, ESB Energy International, Aine Daly, Richard Finnegan, Networks,
Ann Finnegan, Terry Gorman, Networks, Patrick Hanlon, ESB Energy International, Pauline
Hanlon, Michael Johnston, Networks, Lily Johnston, Kieran Kennedy, ESB Energy International,
Mary Kennedy, Maria Lacey, Electric Ireland, Jimmy Lacey, Michael Lynch, ESB Energy
International, Mary Lynch, Tom Martin, Networks, Olive Martin, Peter Merriman, Networks, Anne
Merriman, Martin McGettigan, Networks, Joan McGettigan, Paddy McNamara, Networks, Ann
McNamara, Terence McNamara, Networks, Philomena McNamara, Michael Mullen, Networks,
Anne Mullen, Fergus Murphy, Networks, Mary Murphy ,Bernie O’Leary, Networks, Joseph
O’Leary, Ger O’Meara, Networks, Joan O’Meara, Maeve O’Reilly, ESB Energy International,
Ken O’Reilly, John O’Shea, ESB Energy International, Mary O’Shea, Paul O’Shea, ESB Energy
International, Kathleen O’Shea, William Shanny, Networks, Deirdre Shanny, Joe Shinkins,
Networks, Angela Keane.
Stellar performance for Stella Days film
An ESB-sponsored film production, Stella Days received nine
nominations for the 2012 Irish Film
and Television Awards including a
nomination for Best Film.
The film features the true story
of a parish priest who because of
his love of film helps set up a local
cinema in Borrisokane, Co Tipperary, in 1957 despite strong opposition from doubtful local parishioners, who question Fr Daniel Barry’s
faith, and from his bishop, who is
more interested in raising funds for
a new church.
Overall, the film’s theme centres on
the strength of community and the
drive for modernisation set against
the backdrop of rural electrification,
themes and historical events, which
make the film relevant for ESB support. ESB Archives assisted the film
producers in creating an authentic
depiction of rural electricification
by providing detail of the project as
well as original electricity network
construction props.
Produced by Jackie Larkin of
Newgrange Pictures, the film stars
Golden Globe winner Martin Sheen,
Oscar Nominee Stephen Rea and
Amy Huberman, who plays the role
of an ESB cookery demonstrator.
ESB Chief Executive Pat O’Doherty
said, “ESB is delighted to be associated with Stella Days and is particularly
pleased that Stella Days has been
nominated for nine awards. We
warmly congratulate all the nominees with the number of nominations clearly reflecting the high quality of the production on all fronts.
It is a truly Irish story and depicts
real life in the Ireland of the 1950s
with the prevailing excitement and
nervousness of change in day to day
life with the arrival of electricity, a
time still remembered by many. We
hope people will enjoy Stella Days
in their local cinemas”.
The 9th Annual Irish Film & Television Awards will take place at
Dublin’s landmark Convention Centre (CCD) on Saturday, 11th February 2012, broadcasting on RTÉ One
at 9.30pm. The show will be hosted
by Irish actor Simon Delaney. n
News
Safety and Health in ESB during 2011
Despite these negative outcomes,
many parts of ESB maintained another injury-free year. The severity
of injuries to staff in LTIs was generally lower than previous years
with an average of 9.8 days lost per
injury compared to 13.5 in 2010
(Fig.2).
Our contractor safety performance continues to improve with
no fatalities during 2011. Eight
contractor LTIs occurred, almost
Fig 3.
Fig 2.
Fig 1.
Last year was a significant
year in relation to safety and
health performance in Ireland
and in ESB. The Health and
Safety Authority recorded an increase in work-related fatalities
in Ireland for the second year in
succession, despite the reduction
in activity in the high-risk construction sector. In ESB, the 37
lost time injuries (LTI) represent
an increase on the previous year
(Fig 1). This was the first time since
1997 that an annual reduction in
staff injuries was not achieved.
Regrettably, our staff colleague
Manohar Singh was fatally injured
in a road traffic collision in Bahrain
in November. This was the first
staff fatality since 2003.
world’s first portable charging
station for electric cars
The world’s first portable
charging station for electric cars
has been developed by an Irish
company.
The EVCharge 4kW, a portable
charging station for Electric Vehicles (EV), has been developed by
JTM Power, a company based in
Rathnew, Co Wicklow.
The stand alone portable electric
vehicle charger, which charges an
electric car independent of the electric supply network, will be sold in
Ireland and in other EV developed
countries. It is powered by lithium
ion battery technology so that
charging with the EVCharge 4kW
can provide up to 20km of range
in half an hour. JTM Power see
the device being used to enable the
driver to get to their nearest public charge point or to the motorist’s
own home charge point when they
would otherwise be out of range.
Speaking at the launch of the
EVCharge, ESB ecars Managing
Director Paul Mulvaney said, “We
are delighted that Irish companies,
such as JTM, are capitalising on
half that for 2010 (Fig.3). This can
partly be explained by a reduction
in contractor activity but also by
consistent safety management of
all contractors. While the number
of staff injuries has increased, we
remain resolute that our goal is
zero injuries.
All business areas with certified
safety management systems re-
A:WasteWatchers
(coming to a bin near
you soon!)
this new and innovative market.
The availability of a mobile charge
point means that drivers will always have access to a charge point
wherever they are located. We expect that more and more Irish firms
will take the lead in this growing
and dynamic market.”
AA Ireland took delivery of an
EVCharge 4kW and began to pilot
the use of the product in December
2011 as part of an electric vehicle
recovery procedure that it is developing. n
January / February
Winner of the
Bi-Monthly
Sustainability Award
The January / February winner of the bi-monthly Sustainability Award is Adrienne Behan, ESB
Networks. Adirenne was selected
by the cross-company Sustainability
Managers Group for her commitment to promoting sustainability in
ESB Networks and throughout the
company. Adrienne has been a Sustainability Champion since 2008
and has worked on many initiatives,
including providing information
on how staff can work sustainably,
helping to co-ordinate the annual
ESB Networks Sustainability Week
programme, and, most recently, presenting the ESB Sustainability DVD
to in schools.
Congratulating Adrienne on her
award, John Campion, ESB Sustainability and HR Director said, “Adrienne’s commitment and enthusiasm
energise everyone around her. I know
that her work in ESB Networks and
with the other Sustainability Champion’s has brought our programme
to life for many people, both inside
ESB and more recently for pupils and
teachers in the schools she has visited
as part of the Schools Programme.
Like all of our Champions, Adrienne
takes on these challenges in addition
to her full time role, and I would like
to thank her and the other Champions for their continuing commitment
to ensuring that we all work in more
sustainable, efficient and resource
conscious ways.” n
Ten Head Office sites now
have WasteWatchers
Q: What’s green and,
in 2012, goes green,
brown or red?
JTM Power MD James Tracey and ESB ecars
MD Paul Mulvaney at the launch of JTM’s
portable charge point.
tained their certification throughout 2011. The remaining businesses plan to achieve certification
during 2012.
There were no public fatalities
as a result of road traffic collisions
involving ESB fleet vehicles or
that of our contracting partners or
from contact with ESB’s network
assets. Regrettably two members
of the public were fatally injured
from contact with electricity on
the customers’
side of the meter.
Driving and
road use remains
a significant hazard for ESB. We
have completed
a Safe Driving
Programme that
has
provided
more than 1,500
Advanced Driver qualifications
to ESB staff and
which achieved a reduction in
road traffic collisions of one third
in comparison to the 2008 statistics.
During 2012 we will strive to
continue our health improvement
programme, maintain the excellent safety performance of our
contractors and arrest the negative trend in staff injuries. n
5
The Head Office Green Committee has been transformed and renamed as WasteWatchers.
Our focus is Waste Management in the Head Office Estate.
We are all about ‘the 3 R’s’ Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,
so we have also been renamed,
reinvented and now need to
rebrand! We need you to develop
our logo.
LOGO COMPETITION
Enter a suitable logo for WasteWatchers and you could win one of
the following fantastic prizes:
• An iPad
• Irish Times subscription for
a year
• A Kindle
• Voucher for the ESB On-Line Store
WasteWatchers monitor the
Head Office Estate, which consists
of: Head Office, Matthews Building, Merrion Square, Clanwilliam
House, Osprey Houses, Stephen’s
Court, 16 Stephens Green, Fleet
Street, St Patrick’s Credit Union and
the Multi-storey car park. n
You can be as creative as you wish,
funny, rubbish or even serious. Go on!
- don’t be a waster! – send us a logo!
Competition is open to all EM
readers and everyone who takes part
will be entered into the prize draw
(one entry to draw per entrant)
Send your logo to [email protected] or Linda Daniel Christie, 27
Lr Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2 before
29th February – Leap to it now.
So while we sleuth – you could be a winner, not just of a prize but of an
improved environment!
6
News
The faces of
Group Internal Audit
8 ESB subscribes to best practice corporate governance; a key component of
which is the policy of the Board of ESB to have and support a Group Internal Audit
function that operates to best international standards.
The Group Internal Audit Management Team (l-r): Peter Brady, Audit Manager;
Michelle Mullally, Group Internal Auditor and Eamon Connolly, Audit Manager.
Group Internal Audit (GIA)
is responsible for the review of business activities across all areas of ESB
Group to independently give assurance to the Board and management
on the adequacy of internal control,
the management of risk and the
achievement of proper, efficient, effective and economic use of resources.
What is the staffing in GIA?
GIA has eighteen staff members
comprising the Group Internal Auditor (Michelle Mullally) supported
by two audit managers (Peter Brady
and Eamonn Connolly), a pool of up
to fourteen auditors and one office
administrator. The team includes
accountants, engineers, I.T. specialists and business graduates. Currently the team has an average of 22
years experience in ESB with staff
who have worked in every business
unit in ESB at some time in their
ESB career - the background and
experience of the team is reflective
of the range of ESB’s business ac-
tivities. Each member of the team is
typically seconded for a three year
period to GIA from the business
units but it can also be for shorter or
longer periods.
ments. These are intended to add value and improve governance, risk management and control processes for the client. Examples include
counsel, advice, facilitation and training. The
same principles of independence, objectivity
and confidentiality that apply to general audits
are maintained throughout fraud investigations
and consulting assignments”.
What types of audits are performed?
Peter: “The range of audits performed in any year is quite extensive. Audits can be performed in
any business unit, subsidiary and
associated company in any location
in ESB. The types of audit can include operational, financial, system
reviews, project reviews, regulatory
compliance reviews and value for
money exercises. There is at least
one overseas audit conducted each
year; Pakistan, Bahrain, Corby and
Spain are recent examples”.
Does anyone audit the auditors?
Michelle: ‘We aim to apply best practice standards to our own processes and procedures within GIA. In 2011 Ernst & Young conducted an
external quality assessment and found that GIA
was operating in full conformance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice
of Internal Auditing (as published by the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors). In addition
since 1994, GIA’s quality management system
has been audited on an annual basis by NSAI to
verify continued ISO9001 accreditation’.
Does GIA get involved in
anything else?
Eamonn: “GIA perform fraud investigations when required. GIA
also perform a small number of
non audit or consulting type assign-
Where can you find more information on internal auditing?
GIA has a comprehensive website on ESBnet that
has recently been updated; go to the ‘ESB Org’
banner, then select ‘Corporate Centre’ and you’ll
see a banner for ‘Group Internal Audit’. n
Jargon buster
Corporate Governance:
The combination of processes and structures
implemented by the board to inform, direct,
manage and monitor the activities of the
organisation toward the achievement of its
objectives.
Internal Control:
Any action taken by management, the board and
other parties to manage risk and increase the
likelihood that established objectives and goals
will be achieved. Management plans, organises
and directs the performance of sufficient actions
to provide reasonable assurance that objectives
and goals will be achieved.
Risk Management:
A process to identify, assess, manage and control
potential events or situations to provide reasonable
assurance regarding the achievement of the organisation’s objectives.
News
New team members
Kevin Grace
Kevin is a chartered Engineer and has been with ESB since 1989. Prior to
joining GIA in September 2011 he worked as a Safety Specialist in Generation Operations.
Gerard Holmes
Gerard is an IT specialist with a degree in computer science and has been
with ESB since 2001. He worked in ITS Operations and Software in the
SAP Basis Team before joining GIA in February 2011. He is currently
studying an MSc in Technology Management in Smurfit Business School.
Eileen Hyland
Eileen is a chartered management accountant with a degree in business
and joined ESB in 1990 on ESB’s Business Graduate Development Programme. She came to GIA in September 2011 from her previous role as
Governance Manager in Electric Ireland.
Conor Murray
Conor is a member of the institute of chartered management accountants and an
Accounting technician. He has been with ESB since 1991. He was a Projects team
lead in the SAP ISU Support Centre before joining GIA in September 2011.
Fiona Darby
Fiona is a member of the institute of chartered certified accountants
and an accounting technician. She has been with ESB since 2007. Prior
to joining GIA in March 2011 she was Finance Manager of the International Consultants business line in Engineering Solutions.
Conor Fahey
Conor is a chartered accountant with a degree in business and joined
ESB in 2005. He was Finance Manager for ESB Independent Generation and Trading before joining GIA in April 2011.
Gerry MacDonald
Gerry is a business graduate and has been with ESB since 1979. He
comes to GIA in February 2012 from the ET&R settlements function
in Electric Ireland.
Established team members
“
“
“I joined GIA to broaden my understanding of and
value to ESB,” Conor Fahey.
“Having spent a number of years as an audit manager in GIA, I can say that the experience gained has
been invaluable for my new role,” Alan McDunphy.
Recently moved
Alan McDunphy
Alan moved from his role as Audit Manager in GIA in November
2011 to become ESB’s I.S. Security Manager.
Dave Halpin
Dave moved from GIA in January 2012 to become Governance Lead
on the Finance Transformation Programme.
Kevin Young
Kevin moved from GIA in July 2011 to become Risk Officer in
Group Commercial & Corporate Risk, reporting to the Group Risk
Manager.
Steve Johnson
Steve took up the role of Senior Risk Analyst in ET&R in Energy
International having left GIA in January 2011.
The established members of the team (l-r): Sheila O’Connor, Jim Dullaghan, Margaret Walsh,
Tom Savage, Pam O’Shea.
7
8
News
Coleraine homes
go on energy diet
NIE has launched a
Shift & Save trial that invites 200 people from selected areas of Coleraine to
get ‘smart’ with their energy
consumption.
The two-year trial, the
first of its kind in Northern
Ireland, will involve swapping existing electricity meters with new smart
digital meters that will monitor a
household’s electricity use, showing
customers how much electricity they
are using and how much it is costing,
allowing them to be more energy efficient.
NIE Customer Liaison Officer
Christine Baker said, “In the first
three days of the trial, we received
more than 100 enquiries on this
project, which is really positive. It
will help to understand how smart
meters and smart-grid technology
could change a household’s energy
usage patterns. We want to help
homeowners save money by ‘shifting’ the times they do things, such as
using their washing machine, which
helps spread the usage on our network and reduces peak electricity
demand at certain times of the day.”
The first year of the trial will
involve installing smart
meters in homes and fitting specialised monitoring
equipment at substations
sites to gather baseline data
and monitor circuit load
data and customers electricity consumption. During the second year, NIE will seek
to influence energy consumption by
encouraging homeowner’s to shift
the times they do things, such as using their washing machine, tumble
dryer or dishwasher. This will help
to spread the usage on our electricity network, reduce peak electricity
demand and enable householder’s to
save money on their energy bills. n
Ecar test drive for ESB
Board Member
Telecom company Vodafone
Ireland is taking part in the national
trial of electric cars being conducted
by ESB ecars.
ESB board member Seán Conlan,
who is also a lecturer at IT Sligo, has
also signed up to give an electric car
a test drive during the national assessment.
The trial involving 15 Mitsubishi
i-MiEVs and two Nissan LEAFs has
been running, in conjunction with
Trinity College Dublin, for the past
18 months. Among those taking part
are ESB staff, residential and high
profile personalities such as Conor
Faughan, AA Ireland, and Alan Gallagher, Head of Stadium Operations
at Croke Park.
In Dromahair, where Seán Conlan
lives, the electric car is already recognised by locals and is provoking lots
of interest both in North Leitrim and
Sligo. Seán has also brought the electric car to IT Sligo to demonstrate it
to staff and to students where it was
received with great enthusiasm.
All participants are providing customer feedback in the form of questionnaires and focus groups to the
trial organisers who are examining
the participant’ ‘expectations before
and after the trial and analysing how
participants are using the charging
infrastructure. The research will also
Sean Conlon charges his electric car
before his test drive.
provide ESB
ecars with a
more in-depth
knowledge of
how the technology and
its integration
into the electricity network
will work in
future as ecars
become mainstream. n
Braille signage in Turlough Hill
A very interesting
disability initiative
took place in Turlough Hill recently.
The Project Office
attached to Turlough
Hill Generating Station has introduced
office, and emergency, signage for the
visually impaired.
Liam Nolan of the Project Office in Turlough Hill examining the
new signage with Niall O’Hanlon, ESB Access Officer.
This signage is different
in very subtle ways:
• All the words and symbols are on
colour contrasting backgrounds,
thereby making them easier to
distinguish.
• All the words and symbols are
slightly raised in order to allow
people to feel the wording or symbol.
• Each sign has the corresponding
Braille wording.
The new signs have been placed
MERGE
monitors
ecar motor
milestones
Dublin was the venue for
the final meeting of the European
MERGE (Mobile Energy Resources
in Grids of Electricity) project in
December 2011. The Irish representatives, from ESB Networks and
the ESB ecars team, met with their
European counterparts to discuss
the findings of this collaborative research project which began in January 2010.
The project examined the impact of
electric cars on:
• The electricity grid infrastructure.
• The existing power generation
and grid infrastructure planning.
• The increase of renewable energy
production.
The MERGE consortium found
the visit to Dublin very interesting, as they had the opportunity
to discuss ESB ecars experiences,
especially the roll-out of electric
vehicle-charging infrastructure in
Ireland to date. n
Members of the MERGE consortium
at Dublin Meeting in December 2011
in particular locations depending on
the office or room usage.
The signs are manufactured by
the company Braille Signs, as per
the guidelines set out in the new
Sign Design Guide, and are accredited by the National Council for the
Blind of Ireland and the National
Disability Authority. The inclusion
of Braille and tactile signage in public sector workplaces is required under equal status legislation, notably
the Employment Equality Act 2010,
Liam and Niall with Daragh Duhy, Project
Manager Turlough Hill Refurbishment.
which aims to improve accessibility and to provide a fully-inclusive
work environment for people with
disabilities.
ESB Access Officer Niall O’Hanlon
recently visited Turlough Hill to
meet with the Project Office staff to
view the signage and he would like
to thank Liam Nolan and Daragh
Duhy for developing this initiative.
Perhaps one day this type of signage will be available for visually
impaired staff in all workplaces. n
Departed friends
Name
Location Departed
Joseph Canavan
ESB Networks, Midland & West 01/11/2011
Denis Healy
ESB Networks, South West Region11/06/2011
Ann Glynn
ESB Networks, Athlone
01/11/2011
Carmel O’Connor
Logistics, Ballycoolin
10/11/2011
Peter Dunne
Rhode
14/11/2011
Carmel Tymon
Arigna 04/11/2011
Mary Lestrange
ESB Networks, Dublin Central & South
29/09/2011
Pierce Murphy
Great Island
13/11/2011
John Gill
ESB Networks, Dublin
03/11/2011
Patrick Cannon
Ferbane
10/11/2011
Timothy Hurley
ESB Networks, Cork
03/11/2011
Bridget Iremonger
ESB Networks, Rathmines
05/11/2011
Anne O’Dwyer
Generation
19/11/2011
Patrick Butler
ESB Networks, Ballycoolin
21/11/2011
Risteard O’Colmain
ESB Networks, Head Office
31/10/2011
Domnick Roarty
Donegal Stns.
22/11/2011
Michael Lombard
ESB Networks, South West
20/11/2011
Catherine Browne
23/11/2011
Kathleen O’Reilly
ESB Networks, Dublin North & Dundalk
12/11/2011
Michael O’Breartuin
National Grid
24/11/2011
Bridget O’Hanlon
ESB Networks, North West
06/12/2011
Joan Riordan
Ardnacrusha
18/11/2011
Martin McHugh
ESB Networks, Galway
08/11/2011
Philomena Russell
ESB Networks, Midland & West Region
09/12/2011
Kathleen Begley
ESB Networks, Midland & West Region
09/12/2011
Patrick Smith
29/11/2011
John P O’Neill
North Wall
12/12/2011
Kathleen Crowley
Moneypoint
04/12/2011
Margaret Byrne
06/12/2011
Brendan Kelly
15/12/2011
Edmund Murphy
Customer Supply, Dublin
15/12/2011
John Feeney
ESB Networks, South East
16/12/2011
PJ Cuffe
Bellacorick
19/12/2011
Margaret Hickey
23/12/2011
Bridget Campbell
ESB Networks, Dublin C& S
23/12/2011
Eileen Moynihan
24/12/2011
Thomas Cooke
Ballycoolin Supply Stores
30/12/2011
John O’Brien
28/12/2011
Martin Drea
Accounts Dept
16/12/2011
Basil Madden
John Ahern
21/12/2011
Anna Leech
02/01/2012
Conor Roche
Harold Bailey
ESB Networks, Head Office
11/01/2012
News
Hot demand from staff for
Thermal Imaging Cameras
The Thermal Imaging Loan
Scheme has generated phenomenal
interest amongst staff, with more than
320 staff registering to take part since
the scheme’s launch in November.
Before being sent out to various
locations across the country in February, the camera is first being used in
the Dublin area where 47 staff members have applied to use the thermal
imaging facility on their homes.
Those applying to borrow the camera under the loan scheme have given
several reasons for their interest:
• Identifying air leaks in the home.
• Testing the effectiveness of installed insulation.
• Identifying future insulation
needs.
There is a thread on the ESB Sustainability discussion board to allow
those who have borrowed the thermalimaging camera the opportunity to
give feedback on their experience with
the camera and to pass on valuable
information to others. Feedback has
been overwhelmingly positive with
users such as Linda Daniel Christie of
ESB Energy International, stressing the
significance of the camera in identifying key areas of heat loss within the
home, “I can’t express enough how
useful we found the camera. We knew
we had heat loss problems but couldn’t
really narrow it down. The camera
showed everything, gaps in insulation,
cold spots and illustrated the benefits
of newer replacement windows that
Finance Transformation Programme
(FiTP) update
Thermal imaging camera showing heat loss
above windows.
we had installed”.
The success of the loan-scheme
to date is such that an additional
camera is being purchased to meet
the overwhelming demand by staff
across the country. n
To learn more about the scheme and to
apply for a loan of the camera, see: esbmoss/sc/sust/Pages/TermalImagingCameraLoanScheme.aspx
Head Office sustainability champions
celebrate sustainability award
Head Office Sustainability
Champions gathered recently to celebrate their winning a Sustainability Week 2011 award.
The award recognises the group’s
many achievements, such as: the
Green IT Initiative where a staff competition to reduce P-drive usage saw
several Terabytes of storage space being released to the company, saving on
costs and reducing CO2 emissions.
The group also held a national
‘Print Free Day’, that was initially for
Head Office only, which focused on
consumption of paper and printing
resources and raised awareness about
paperless working in our modern offices.
To celebrate the growing popularity
of cycling among Head Office staff and
the success of the ESB bike scheme,
the group also held a cycling event in
2011 where more than 50 ESB cyclists
completed a loop of Merrion Square.
The focus is now on 2012, and the
group has two main aims: firstly, to
go about its work in a more structured
manner, and secondly, to include more
ongoing initiatives where the sustainability message, and the positive affects,
can be embedded.
The last decade has seen amazing advances in the development of
Assistive Technology devices. Assistive technology is used to increase
an individual’s independence in personal, educational or career context.
Assistive Technology has traditionally
been viewed as specialist technology.
However, technology is now becoming more inclusive and Assistive Technology software is now being incorporated into iPods, iPads and devices
running on the Windows 7 platform.
There are many versions of Speech
to Text / Voice Recognition software
available. One that captures the attention and is commonly used in the
If you would like to join this group
of champions, please contact any one
of the following: Mary Nolan, Wind;
Claire Kearns, HR; Michele Clarke,
BSC; Fergus Keane / Duncan Clarke,
Environment & Sustainability,. Head
Office Sustainability champions communications committee Adrienne
Behan, Linda Daniel Christie, Fergus
Keane. n
The Head Office Sustainability Champions with their award.
Assistive Technology: – Part 3:
educational and business world is
Dragon Naturally Speaking.
Voice recognition systems enable
individuals with dyslexia, visual impairment or manual dexterity difficulties to dictate a document to the
computer as an alternative to using
the keyboard and mouse. It enables
users to dictate and have speech
transcribed as written text, to have
a document synthesised as an audio
stream or to issue commands that
are recognised as such by the program. In addition, voice profiles can
be accessed through different computers in a networked environment,
such as a college.
9
Who can use/benefit from Dragon
Naturally Speaking software:
• People who find it difficult to write
or type.
• People with Physical Disabilities.
• People with RSI or Arthritis.
• In the business world, Dragon Naturally Speaking technology is used
for report writing.
This software has three primary areas of functionality: dictation, textto-speech and command input.
• Dragon Naturally Speaking can be
used for all functions on the computer.
• It is an inexpensive piece of software and requires a separate USB
microphone.
• It can create/support MP3 files and
will also take into consideration
dialectic differences. n
For more information on Assistive Technology and its benefits, please check the following:
www.ahead.ie / www.assistireland.ie
Or contact Equality&[email protected]
Pictured following a recent Finance Transformation Programme board meeting are project
board members: Back row (l-r): Gavan Walsh, Transition Manager, FiTP; Shana Dillon, Finance
Operations Manager, BSC; Arthur Hutchinson, Technology Solutions Manager, BSC; Valerie
Little, HR Manager, Services & Electric Ireland and Mick Roche, Financial Controller, Services
& Electric Ireland. Front row (l-r): Caitriona Kinsman, Financial Controller, ESB Networks;
Cathal Marley, Group Financial Controller & Chairman of FiTP’s Project Board and Jim Dollard,
Financial Controller, ESB Energy International. Missing from photo is Niall Dineen, Programme
Manager, FiTP.
Inset: Cathal Marley, Group Financial Controller and Chairman of FiTP’s Project Board, recently
presented a cheque for €576 to John Kelly, Chairman of ElectricAid. The money was raised
following the first in a series of FiTP Communications Surveys where the Programme agreed
to donate €3 for every response received. John Kelly, on behalf of ElectricAid, expressed his
sincere thanks to all finance staff who participated in the survey.
The Finance Transformation Programme (FiTP) is continuing to work
towards implementation of ESB’s
new Finance Operating Model.
Significant progress has been made
to date in the areas of process design,
identifying relevant key performance
indicators, activity analysis and initial
migration planning.
To the end of January, the programme will have completed more
than 30 process design workshops
with significant involvement of financial staff from across all Business
Units and Corporate Centre.
To date, the workshops have been
very informative, challenging and
positively received and we expect
this to continue for the remaining detailed design and business unit level
workshops. The eventual output from
the workshops – the proposed new finance processes – are expected to be
ready for sign-off in early April.
Along with the data collected
during the Activity Analysis, the
workshops are helping with the development of the Migration Strategy
and Migration Plans on how the Programme, working with the business
units, will transition the Finance organisation into the new Finance Operating Model.
The Programme also recently
launched a new dedicated intranet
site - http://esbnet/fitp - following
feedback received in a recent communications survey. The site aims to create awareness about the Programme.
As well as many engaging and interactive features, the site also contains
a large database of Frequently Asked
Questions covering a range of programme related topics.
It is important that we hear your
views so that we can continuously
improve how we communicate with
staff on this important programme. n
We would really appreciate if you could contact [email protected] with any
feedback you may have.
50% of staff complete
Sustainability Training in 2011
A significant milestone
in sustainability awareness in ESB
was reached at the end of 2011 with
50% of staff completing foundation
training in sustainability. This was
through their successful completion
of the on-line training course accessible by logging in from your c:drive
or to by accessing it directly at:
http://esbnet/sustainability/News-and-Events/latest.
shtm#trainingcourse
More than half of ESB staff completed foundation training courses in
sustainability last year, a significant
achievement in efforts to raise sustainability awareness across the company.
By the end of 2011 more than
50% of staff had availed of the online courses available from staff
C: drives or via: esbnet/sustainability/News-and-Events/latest.
shtm#trainingcourse
The course provides information
on sustainable working and living,
energy and resource efficiency and
explains the work underway in ESB.
“The target of a 50% completion rate
by the end of 2011 was set at the beginning of this year, and it is very encouraging to see the progress we have made,”
said Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Manager Tony Carroll. “The
course is an important first step in the
journey towards more sustainable working and I would encourage anyone who
hasn’t taken it yet to log on.”
Staff who complete the course are
credited with having a foundation
level competency in sustainability
and this is recorded by PHR, as sustainability is now regarded as a core
competency for ESB personnel.
The target for 2012 is to have 80%
of staff successfully complete the
course by the end of this year. n
10 News
UCD Certificate in Safety and Health at Work 2011 Schools Sustainability
ly, Joseph Kiernan, Richard King,
Patrick Lelas, Brendan Markey, Ailish McKay Moorhouse, Peter Morgan, George O’Driscoll, Dominic
O’Brien, Niamh O’Driscoll, Kenneth
Patterson, George Quinn, William
Reidy, Eimear Roche, Ciaran Smith,
Executive Director HR & Sustainability, John Campion and Executive Director Services & Electric Pat Smith and Stephen Tracey.
Ireland, Brid Horan pictured with the Class of 2011 Certificate in Safety & Health at Work.
The 2012 course has begun with
another 21 ESB staff and managers
ESB has a proud tradition in setting Office Conference Centre on Monday having already completed their first
Safety and Health as core values. The December 12th. Also in attendance week in UCD in January. We wish
knowledge and competence of our to recognise their achievement were them every success with their studstaff and managers is key to assuring Sustainability and HR Executive Di- ies.
We are grateful to our own staff
the highest standards of safety and rector John Campion, Services and
Electric Ireland Executive Director who organise and present at the
health are applied at work.
UCD has provided a course lead- Brid Horan, ESB Networks Projects course each year. n
ing to the Certificate in Safety and Manager Padraig O’Hicheadha,
Health at Work qualification since UCD Centre for Safety and Health If you would like to know more about this
1994. This foundation in Occupation- at Work Manager David O’Dwyer, course please contact any of the following:
al Safety and Health has provided UCD Certificate Course Administra- Gus Connolly, Adrian Carroll, George O’Driscoll
many ESB staff and managers from tor Anna Noble, Networks Safety or Ronan Collier.
different disciplines in the organisa- and Health Services Manager Gus
tion with a sound appreciation of Connolly, Generation Operations
health and safety principles. These Training Manager Adrian Carroll,
good practices have been transferred Services and Electric Ireland Safety
successfully to their own work envi- and Health Manager Jim Murphy,
ronments. Since 1996 when the ESB Corporate Safety Health and Wellbeintensive course first started a total ing Coordinator Ronan Collier and
of 359 ESB staff and managers have the partners of the successful candidates.
successfully participated in it.
John Campion and Brid Horan with
The course graduates were WilThe course consists of 10 days tuicertificate recipients from Services and
tion from January to March, assigned liam Carrigan, Francis Coyne, Kevin
Electric Ireland.
projects for each module and a multi- Crowe, Fintan Cudden, Joseph
Garvey, Colum Grogan, Richard
choice exam in May.
During 2011, 25 ESB staff and Hackett, John Hatch, James Heamanagers successfully completed the UCD Certificates
in Safety and Health and
Work. Dr. Anne Drummond,
Director of the Centre for
Safety and Health at Work,
John Campion and Padraig O’Hicheadha, ESB
UCD presented certificates
Networks Projects Manager with the staff from
The staff from ESB Energy International
to the successful candidates
ESB Networks.
pictured with John Campion.
at a ceremony in ESB Head
Tour Programme gains
momentum
The transition year students of Mercy
College Coolock.
As part of the Schools Sustainability Tour launched at the end of
2011, two ESB ecars staff, Deirdre
Arthur and James Lally, visited the
Mercy College in Coolock. Deirdre
is a past pupil of Mercy College and
she was warmly welcomed on her
return, with the visit bringing back
many happy memories of the time
she spent there.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of meeting the children, seeing
their enthusiasm for the ecar and
learning about the sustainability
initiatives that they are involved in.
This was all the more meaningful, as
it was the school I had attended some
years ago,” explained Deirdre.
The aim of the Schools Sustainability Tour is to encourage Corporate
Centre staff to visit primary schools
in their locality and give a presentation on topics related to sustainabilty
and to demonstrate an electric car. In
Coolock, the pupils were very excited about the electric car that was displayed in the school yard and every-
Deirdre Arthur, ESB ecars, visits her old
school.
one had an opportunity to sit inside
and see how it was charged.
If you would like to get involved
in the Schools Programme there is a
toolbox of resources to support staff
interested in participating. The toolbox includes an interactive DVD
presentation and a quiz, a Frequently Asked Questions document, ecar
brochures and videos, as well as the
use of an ecar for visits, depending
on the school’s location. n
If you are interested in taking part in the
Schools Sustainability Tour Programme
please contact: [email protected]
Electric Ireland unveiled as title sponsor
of FIH Olympic Qualifying Tournament
The Olympic countdown continues for the Men’s Irish hockey
team as they prepare for the Electric
Ireland FIH Road to London tournament, the only direct Olympic
Qualifying tournament taking place
in Ireland across any discipline and
brings six nations together to battle it
out for one spot in the London 2012
Olympics.
Electric Ireland has been long term
supporters of Irish Hockey through
their sponsorship of the national
women’s hockey team. Sponsorship of this Olympics Qualification
Tournament in UCD in March fits
with Electric Ireland’s sponsorship
of Team Ireland for the London Olympics.
Chief Executive of the Irish Hockey Association Angus Kirkland was
thrilled to be working with Electric
Ireland once again. “Electric Ireland
has been superb sponsors of Hockey
over the last number of years. The
fact that they are now extending
their involvement with Hockey and
their recent sponsorship of Team Ireland for the Olympics is testament to
their commitment to sport,” he said.
“We are looking forward to staging this prestigious event with Electric Ireland at our side and both our
National sides, are working hard
towards their goal of qualifying for
the London Games and to be a part
of Team Ireland this summer,” he
added.
Brid Horan, Executive Director,
Electric Ireland said, “Electric Ireland
is delighted to sponsor this important
tournament given it is the only direct
Olympic qualifying tournament taking place in Ireland. We feel it is a
good addition to our sponsorship of
Team Ireland for the London Olympics
and this event will certainly add to the
growing excitement around the Olympics. We wish all the players the best in
the tournament and obviously we are
fully behind our Irish team.” n
Participating Teams:
Korea
Malaysia
Ireland
Russia
Chile
Ukraine
Match Schedule:
Saturday 10 March 2012
12:00 Malaysia v Chile
14:30 Ireland v Russia
17:00 Korea v Ukraine
Brid Horan, Executive Director, Services and Electric Ireland with IHA players (l-r): Ronan
Gormley, Captain, Stuart Loughrey and Mitch Darling.
Sunday 11 March 2012
12.30 Malaysia v Russia
15:00 Ukraine v Ireland
17:30 Korea v Chile
Tuesday 13 March 2012
13.00 Ukraine v Malaysia
15:30 Russia v Chile
18.00 Ireland v Korea
Thursday 15 March 2012
13:00 Russia v Ukraine
15:30 Malaysia v Korea
18:00 Chile v Ireland
Saturday 17 March 2012
10:00 Korea v Russia
12.30 Chile v Ukraine
15:00 Ireland v Malaysia
Sunday 18 March 2012
11:00 5th in Pool v 6th in Pool
13:30 3rd in Pool v 4th in Pool
16:00 1st in Pool v 2nd in Pool
11
www.esb.ie/em February/March 2012
THE 2012
Olympics!
Services and Electric Ireland
Services and
Electric Ireland
Page 13
Businesses will save money with
EI’s Office Energy Expert tool
Electric Ireland has launched
its Office Energy Expert, an innovative first-to-market tool, designed to help business customers
save money by using energy more
efficiently.
By adopting a managed approach
to eliminating the waste of electricity, with a few simple steps, users
can reduce their electricity consumption and costs by up to 20%.
This tool is relevant for all business customers, large and small,
including industrial, commercial,
shops, hairdressers, bakeries, call
centres etc. n
TWEET ‘EM HOME FOR
CHRISTMAS
over 50,000 tweets achieved
and a total of €80,000 donated to
charity!
Electric Ireland’s Tweet ‘em Home
for Christmas social media campaign
saw three teams competing for charities – Concern Worldwide (Team
A), Irish Cancer Society (Team B)
and ISPCC (Team C) – to generate
tweets using a hashtag to fuel their
cars on a two-day drive from Dublin
to Galway and back. The teams with
celebrity navigators were travelling
in a DeLorean, a New York yellow
taxi cab and a Renault Trophy on
Thursday and Friday December 8th
and 9th.
The ‘star navigators’ included musician Mundy, comedian Joe Rooney,
illusionist Keith Barry, rugby commentator Brent Pope, TV presenter
Katie Van Buren and comedian
Andrew Stanley. Electric Ireland
chose Mike Carey from Cork, Liz
Cotter from Cork and Ian O’Flynn
from Mullingar as the lucky drivers
General Manager Electric Ireland, Liam Molloy,
introduces Chief Executive, Pat O’Doherty, to
some of the staff at Swift Square.
The Office Energy Expert is packed with
effective energy efficiency tips and can
have a real impact on reducing energy
costs. The application provides a virtual,
practical demonstration of how energy
can be saved in each area within an office building and can be viewed for free
online at www.electricireland.ie/office.
Ready, steady tweet! Mike Carey, Liz Cotter, Katie Van Buren and Ian O’Flynn
warming up the Deloreon to take to the road for charity.
who would help Tweet ‘em Home for
Christmas.
Any social media support was
translated into ‘fuel’ so the more support the teams received, via Twitter,
Facebook, etc, the longer they could
drive for each day. Each team was
also able to top up their tank by taking part in a series of challenges along
the circuit – and, of course, tweeting
about how they got on.
This brand-building campaign
spread Electric Ireland’s name across
the internet, across Ireland and the
world. Electric Ireland dominated
Twitter over the two days with the
likes of champion cyclist Lance Armstrong who has more than 3 million
followers and pop stars Jedward with
almost 500,000 followers supporting
the campaign and tweeting the hashtag #TweetEmHome.
Following a phenomenal response
from the general public and the
Twittesphere, Electric Ireland set
a new challenge the second day of
Pat
O’Doherty
addressing
the staff.
Chief Executive visits Electric Ireland HQ
Star Navigators Andrew Stanley and
Joe Rooney. Gearing up for a charity
drive like no other.
Chief Executive, Pat O’Doherty,
paid a visit to Electric Ireland in late
December to meet the staff based in
Swift Square. Pat was welcomed by
Manager Electric Ireland, Liam Molloy, who was delighted to introduce
Pat to the staff following his appointment as Chief Executive.
Pat did a walk through the building and was very impressed with the
layout and strong branding of Electric Ireland throughout. He later addressed the staff, congratulating them
on the successes of the past year and
outlining the future challenges for
both ESB and Electric Ireland.
In particular, he spoke about
the loss of 800,000 customers over
2009/10 and the major transformation of the business carried out in
preparation for market opening in
October 2010 (SME) and April 2011
(Residential).
He complimented everyone involved in the successful launch of the
new Electric Ireland brand and commented that the 87% recognition is
extremely high for a new brand and
a great tribute to those who worked
on it.
Pat also said he recognised the major systems programme involved in
Electric Ireland’s entry into the gas
retail and gas boiler maintenance
market as well as the launch of a
range of new energy services.
He congratulated the staff on the
successful launch of new electricity and gas price plans which has
stemmed losses for first time in three
years and resulted in over 100,000
customers returning since the deregulation of the residential market
in April 2011.
“We have also seen a reversal of
the escalating debtors’ trend, the
successful introduction of new marketing channels such as field sales,
telemarketing, online, etc. and the innovative use of social media such as
Twitter and Facebook,” he said.
“Together with our pilot entry into
the Northern Ireland residential market, all of these changes, over a relatively short period, are a tremendous
reflection of the determination of
the staff in Electric Ireland to return
ESB’s supply business to its rightful
place of market leader.” n
Pat meets the staff on his walkabout at
Electric Ireland Headquarters.
Breakfast with McWilliams
Team A for Concern: winners of Tweet
‘em Home for Christmas.
the campaign: a target of generating 25,000 tweets. The target was
achieved and an additional €10,000
was donated to each of the three
charities involved bringing the total
donation to €80,000.
The Concern Worldwide team was
the winner of Electric Ireland Tweet
‘Em Home for Christmas. A highlights video showing the best bits
from each team over the two days
are available on our Youtube channel, www.youtube.com/user/ELECTRICIRELAND. n
Pictured at the Electric Ireland Marketing Development Programme Business
Breakfast held in the National Gallery of Ireland are newly-appointed CEO of ESB, Pat
O’Doherty, keynote speaker, economist, author and broadcaster, David McWilliams,
marketing student Kim McDonnell from Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School
and Brid Horan, Executive Director, Services & Electric Ireland. Keynote speaker
David McWilliams gave some valuable tips to students at the breakfast, advising
them on how to stand out from the crowd and succeed despite the difficult times.
Electric Ireland affords graduates an opportunity to interact directly with influential
business leaders and to connect with companies of interest to them to create future
opportunities. The Marketing Development Programme operates within the Michael
Smurfit Graduate Business School and offers professional marketing consultancy
services to start-up’s, SME’s and multinationals.
12 SERVICES and ELECTRIC IRELAND
Connected World: Third level Education
Data protection - know your rights
Data Protection and the Data
Protection Commissioner have been
the subject of several media reports
recently in relation to data sharing.
We thought it timely for this edition
of Connected World to remind staff of
the rights granted to them by the Data
Protection Acts.
When you give your personal details to an organisation or individual,
they have a duty to keep these details
private and safe from disclosure. This
process is known as ‘data protection’.
Most of us give information about ourselves to groups such as government
bodies, banks, or insurance companies, etc. in order to use their services
or meet our personal legal obligations.
Under data protection law, you have
rights regarding the use of these personal details and the bodies controlling
this data have certain responsibilities
in how they handle this information.
The Data Protection Acts rights apply to your personal information when
the information is:
• Held on a computer.
• Held on paper or other manual form
as part of a filing system.
• Made up of photographs or video recordings of your image or recordings
of your voice.
You have a range of rights when a person
or organisation takes and records your
personal details. You have the right to;
• Have your details used in line with
data protection regulations.
• Gain access to your personal
details.
• Know if your personal details are
being held.
•Change or remove your personal
details.
• Prevent the use of your personal
details for other purposes.
• Remove your details from a direct
marketing list.
• Decline to allow your details to be
used in automated decision making.
•Decline to allow direct marketing
calls or mail.
The acts grant these rights to make
sure that the information held about
you is factually correct, only available
to those who should have it and that it
is only used for the purposes for which
it was gathered.
As we mentioned earlier the acts not
only grant rights to you, but they also
place considerable responsibilities on
bodies processing your personal data.
These bodies, AKA Data Controllers,
are obliged to;
• Gather and use personal information fairly.
• Keep it for only one or more clearly
stated and lawful purposes.
• Use and make known this information only in ways that are in keeping
with these purposes.
• Keep the information safe.
• Make sure that the information
is factually correct, complete and
up-to-date.
• Make sure that there is enough
information – but not too much - and
that it is relevant.
• Keep the information for no longer
than is needed for the reason stated.
• Give you a copy of your personal
information when you ask for it.
This article is a brief insight into
what can be a complex subject, however we hope that this piece is a reminder
to staff, their families and friends, that
they have rights and also that privacy
is a right and not just an aspiration. n
Please note that the above article does not
constitute legal advice nor does it necessarily
represent the views or policy of ESB. If you
have any queries regarding Data Protection or
require advice please contact the ESB Data
Protection Manger ([email protected]) or
your own legal representative.
Electric Ireland Store had
a busy run up to Christmas. We held
a number of Staff Roadshows in the
following locations during Novem-
Pictured: Front row (l-r): Niall O’Hanlon, Carmel Hosey, Eileen Hyland, Maria Travers;
Back row (l-r): Siobhan Browne, Niamh O’Neill, Cathy Casey, Bernie O’Connor, Monica
Connolly, Orla Gallagher, James Foley, Aislinn Roche and Ita O’Dea.
2011 St. Patrick’s Credit Union –
Alan Gallagher Educational Award
Winner
•Joseph Byrne, (SN 06477), ESB
Energy International, son Fiachra
The 2011 ESB Third-Level Education
Awards Draw for Children of Staff
took place on Friday October 28th in
the Helsinki Room, Head Office.
2011 ESB Educational Bursary Winner
•Donie Hogan, (SN 04339), VSS,
ESB Energy International, son Evan.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL n
ber and December - Swift Square,
Head Office, Wilton and Abtran,
which proved very successful and
we will be looking forward to visiting other locations throughout
2012.
The Electric Ireland Online Store
ran a twitter promotion for the first
time, the promotion was called ‘12
Days of Christmas’ and consisted
of tweeters pledging a #tweetwish
of their most desired online store
product. At the end of each day, a
tweeter was selected and won the
product they wished for. This was
There were also draws on the same
day for the St Patrick’s Credit Union
- Alan Gallagher Educational Award
and the 2011 ESB Education Bursary.
€1Million Winter
Charity Programme
ESB Chief Executive, Pat O’Doherty, with Sean Moynihan, Chief Executive ALONE and
Mairead Bushnell, SVP National President.
On December 20th, ESB announced its Electric Ireland €1Million Winter Charity Programme to
support two important Irish charities – Saint Vincent de Paul and
ALONE.
ESB has a long tradition of work-
Online Store
By Mary Milne
Award-winners
2011 ESB Third Level Educational
Awards Draw Winners
•Patrick Rowland (SN 09943),
ESB Networks, daughter Joanne
•Christopher Fitzgerald, (SN
09719), ESB Networks, daughter
Stacey
•Alan Enright, (SN 15855), ESB
Networks, son Mark
•Michael Regan (SN 07616), ESB
Networks, son Colin
•Peter Keogh, (SN 13903), ESB
Networks, son Jason
a great promotional opportunity
for us to showcase our great range
of products whilst engaging with
a social media based market. We
hope to explore further opportunities within social media in 2012.
Our top-selling product in December was the Chimney Balloon,
closely followed by the Carbon
Monoxide Alarm. We have just
added a new Carbon Monoxide
Alarm which has a digital display
for homes with people who are
more susceptible to CO such as, the
very young, elderly or those with
respiratory problems. Our range
of Carbon Monoxide and Smoke
Alarms are Irish Made.
The online store has been re-
ing with St. Vincent de Paul and
supported them with a significant
cash donation before Christmas and
a special promotion in 2012 that
will continue to raise funds for the
charity.
ESB is also supporting ALONE
branded to reflect the stand alone
Electric Ireland brand. The challenge for 2012 is to successfully
promote this newly single branded
store by means of innovative and
engaging campaigns to ensure we
fully build upon the potential of
the online store. The Electric Ireland Store also has a new web address www.electricirelandstore.ie
so please don’t forget to add us to
your favourites, and check in with
us from time to time to view the
exciting offers for you in 2012.
And to help our customers spring
into energy efficiency this February we will be offering the chance
for all customers to avail of free
delivery for a limited period! n
in a very meaningful way. Through
its Electric Ireland Energy Services
business, the company will carry
out energy efficiency retrofit work
on ALONE properties and donate
additional funds to the charity to
support its fuel affordability programme.
ESB Chief Executive Pat
O’Doherty said, “In view of the current economic climate and the hardships that many people across the
country are facing, we are delighted to provide the Electric Ireland
€1Million fund to support those
most in need”.
“We know that organisations such
as St. Vincent de Paul and ALONE
are dependent on donations to ensure they continue to support those
most in need, particularly in the lead
up to Christmas, when they experience a significant increase in requests
for assistance. We also appreciate
that charities are finding it increasingly difficult to raise much needed
funds in this challenging economic
environment,” he added. n
A grand account!
A charity account was set up in 2009
within Electric Ireland Payments to allow customers the opportunity to donate small sums of
money to a charity where they had a credit balance on their electricity account. Last year a total
of €1,009.09 has been raised by this initiative.
The DD Administration/Payments Control
teams have nominated two local Sligo charities, the MS North West Therapy Centre and
The Down Syndrome Ireland as this year’s
deserving charities. Customers who donated
money to the Charity Account during the
year will be issued with a ‘Thank You’ letter
by the Direct Debit Administration team in
Sligo acknowledging their donation to these
charities. Thanks also to the Contact Centre
and all Billing & Payments staff support for
this worthwhile initiative. n
SERVICES and ELECTRIC IRELAND
13
Electric Ireland and London 2012
I work closely with my nutritionist, who plans out what foods to eat
and when to eat. I eat REAL food!
Plenty of vegetables, protein, carb’s
such as quinoa, bulgar wheat and
sweet potato.
8 Electric Ireland is the Official Energy Partner to Ireland’s Olympic Team. Check out Olympic
News on ESBnet. Monday January 9th marked 200 days to the start of the London 2012
Olympic Games. To celebrate Electric Ireland’s sponsorship of Ireland’s Olympic Team,
Countdown Clocks to London 2012 have been installed in ESB Head Office, Lower Fitzwilliam
Street and Electric Ireland Offices, Swift Square, Santry. The Olympic Games are undoubtedly
the world’s greatest festival of sport. London 2012 will take place from 27th July to 12th
August 2012 and will be the single biggest sporting occasion ever to be held in such close
proximity to Ireland.
Interview with David Gillick, Olympic hopeful
Who is David Gillick?
Personal details
• Born - July 1983
• Place of Birth - Dublin
• Residence - Ballinteer, Dublin,
Ireland and Loughborough,
England
• Athletics Disciplines - 400m
• Club - Dundrum South Dublin
• Height - 6ft 2ins
• Weight - 83 kgs
• Education:
• Our Lady’s National School,
Ballinteer
• St. Benildus College, Kilmacud
• Dublin Institute of Technology
• Loughborough
University
Career Highlights
We met with David in December 2011 to get a sense of his
preparations for the Olympics.
David, give us a brief insight into
your daily training schedule?
I start at 10am, warm up, jog and
• 2007 - 400 metres - GOLD
European Indoor Championships)
• 2005 - 400 metres - GOLD
(European Indoor Championships)
• Irish 400m record holder (Indoor and outdoor)
• First
Irish
man
under
45 seconds
• First Irish man to make a
world final
• World Indoor bronze
• Double European Indoor
Champion, 2005, 2007
• 2007 World Championship
semi finalist
• 2008 Beijing Olympian
• 6th 400m 2009 World
Championships
drills. Then at 11am session starts,
either in the gym or a running session. This can take anywhere from
1 to 2 hours. Then it’s a warm down
jog and stretching followed by recovery ice bath (after big sessions).
Afternoon training consists of
mainly conditioning work like core
exercises, Pilates, Yoga or rehab/
prehab workouts.
What is your diet like?
I view my diet as a massive part of
my game. It’s extremely important to
make sure I’m refueling my body in
order to recover from training that
day and also to prepare my body for
the following day’s training session.
How does your diet change before
competitions?
As the volume of training decreases as competitions approach, I basically don’t need as much food to
recover. At the same time it is important to make sure I’m fuelled up
to compete.
My diet mainly stays the same
but I will cut back on the amount
of carbohydrate I eat. The idea is
to eat light in order to race light.
I can recommend some small
changes that could make for a
healthier lifestyle:
• Eat protein with every meal.
Protein doesn’t make you big,
carb’s do!
• Eat real foods, stay away from
processed products.
• Sugar is the enemy, it will make
you eat more and put on weight.
Try not to eat sugar and carb’s in
the evening in front of TV - that
includes popcorn!
• Do not be afraid to eat fat. Good
fatty food such as olives, nuts, avocados and cheeses are all great
for health. It’s the media that
have given fat such a bad name.
This year I am eating more fat
than ever and I’m the leanest I
have ever been!
Typical day
Breakfast; oats and natural
yogurt, protein, orange juice
and a banana (make a
smoothie).
Lunch; Chicken, feta,
avocado, quinoa salad.
Dinner; Salmon, sweet potato,
vegetables.
David’s Olympic Ambitions
Update us on your hopes for qualification for London 2012?
I’m now back with my old coach in
Loughborough, I’m happy, enjoying my training and I believe I’m
on track to run to my potential. I’m
hitting all my targets in training,
and that breeds confidence. I am
back in the set up that got me to run
my best times in the past.
What sort of challenge do you face
in order to make the cut?
I need to run inside 45.30. It means
competing earlier this year in order
to make the team. I need to make
sure I’m running near my best early season, to make sure I run the
standard.
Where do you get your drive from
to keep striving to get better?
Im very lucky to be doing a sport
full time. I love what I do, and I believe I can improve. It’s exciting to
go to work everyday knowing that
you’re bettering yourself.
2011 was a tough year for you, how
do you overcome such hurdles and
keep going?
You have to be honest with yourself, and do what makes you happy.
You have got to enjoy what you are
doing, and that means the environment you put yourself in. If you
think you can better yourself and
improve, that is a good motivator
to put the effort in on a daily basis.
In athletics we have a major championship every year, which gives
me something to aim for, a goal,
a test and you have to prepare for
the exam! Sometimes it’s hard to
understand why, but there is something, a deep desire to get the best
out of yourself. Something that tells
you, you’re not finished yet! For
more information on the Oympics
check out the newsletter n
14 SERVICES and ELECTRIC IRELAND
Declan Furlong
conferral
Declan Furlong, of the ESB
Business Service Centre at ESB
Head Office, was recently conferred with MSc (1st Class Hons
with distinction) in Management
of Information Systems from
Trinity College Dublin at a recent
commencements held in Trinity.
His dissertation, Vehicle to Grid
in the Irish Retail Electricity Market, investigated evolving business
models for vehicle-to-grid technology and the resultant impacts the
implementation of this technology
might have on the ICT solutions
that support the operation of the
retail electricity market in the Republic of Ireland. Also known as
V2G, vehicle-to-grid is a system
where plug-in electric vehicles,
such as electric cars (BEVs) and
plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), communicate with the power grid to
sell demand response services by
either delivering electricity into
the grid from their batteries or by
throttling their charging rates.
Declan previously earned a
Bachelors of Science in Applied
Computing from WIT in 1991. He
was recently appointed Manager
of Business Projects within BSC Technology Solutions. n
Electric
Ireland
Colouring
Competition
Electric Ireland and the RSA
distributed 80,000 high visibility vests to every child who started
school last September. The vests
were included in the ‘Back to School’
packs which were distributed to primary schools nationwide. These
packs also included the Electric Ireland Colouring Competition, which
attracted nearly 3,000 entries. n
Pictured are: Trish Canty of Electric
Ireland and the winner of the Colouring
Completion, Dylan Keegan with his
winning picture, at St. Brigid’s NS,
Stillorgan, Co. Dublin.
Electric Ireland set to
energise Under-20’s Six
Nations Home Series
8 Seventh season of
Electric Ireland support
for Buccaneers staging of
home games
Electric Ireland has announced their continued support
for the Buccaneers Rugby Football Club’s staging of the upcoming U-20 Six Nations Championship home games in Dubarry
Park, Athlone.
This is the seventh year that
Electric Ireland has sponsored
the hosting of Ireland’s home
games at the Athlone stadium
in association with Buccaneers.
Present at today’s announcement
were Irish U-20 Internationals,
Daniel Qualter (Buccaneers/Connacht), Patrick Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster), JJ Hanrahan (UL
Bohemian/Munster) and Conor
Gilsenan (UCD/Leinster).
Electric Ireland’s Commercial
Manager, Ken McKervey said,
“Electric Ireland is delighted to
continue the tradition of supporting the home showcase of
the best of the emerging young
talent in Irish Rugby.”
“We have enjoyed a long and
successful partnership with the
Ken McKervey, Electric Ireland’s Commercial Manager with Irish U-20 Internationals, Daniel
Qualter, Buccaneers/Connacht, Patrick Jackson, Dungannon/Ulster, JJ Hanrahan, UL
Bohemian/Munster and Conor Gilsenan, UCD/Leinster.
home series and are delighted to
be continuing our involvement in
2012. In the past we have been
treated to some outstanding
encounters in Athlone and certainly we are looking forward
to three very competitive home
games this year against Wales,
Italy and Scotland,” he added.
Welcoming the continued
support Electric Ireland sponsorship of the Athlone hosting
brings, Buccaneers RFC President Ted Carty acknowledged
the support of the IRFU in
bringing prestigious interna-
tional fixtures to the heartland
of the country. “I am his delighted at so many young Buccaneers being involved with the
squad with six taking part in
recent trial games,” he said.
Ireland will be coached again
this year by Mike Ruddock and
will have a new team manager
in Brian Roantree.
Ireland will play three home
matches in Athlone against
Wales on February 3rd, Italy on
February 24th and Scotland on
March 9th. Each of these games
will be televised on RTE 2. n
Captain Erkki Poikosen, Miranda Conroy and ESB Deputy Chief Executive, Johnny Shine.
A special Finnish visitor
A Finnish sea captain who played
a role in Ireland’s rural electrification
scheme more than 40 years ago returned to Dublin in December.
Erkki Poikosen, now aged 81,
was owner and skipper of the
MV Ritva, which delivered more
than 150,000 poles for use in the
scheme, about 15% of the total.
During his short stay in December, Mr Poikosen met with
descendants of the late Peter Conroy who, with Neil O’Donoghue, was
charged by ESB with managing logistics and the import and delivery of
materials used in the project to bring
electricity to 480,000 rural homes between 1946 and 1980.
At any one time there were typically 40 separate construction crews
in operation employing 3500 - 4500
staff. Over 1M poles, 1M transformers and 100,000km of line were
used in the scheme, which cost about
€130M, of which €30M was provided
by way of a government subsidy to
the capital cost.
Peter Conroy played a central role in
the Rural Electrification Scheme and
he is remembered in a special plaque
that was unveiled in his honour as
part of the 60th anniversary celebrations in 2006. As well as sourcing and
purchasing 1m poles from Finland,
Peter also chartered Mr Poikosen’s
ship, the Ritva. Before Erkki bought
her and became her master, she had
been named the Make. The Ritva
delivered 150,000 consignments of
poles from Finland to Dublin, Cork
and Limerick. The total number of
poles used in the scheme was more
than 1,000,000.
The skipper and the logistics manager gradually became good friends,
so much so that Mr Poikosen visited
Ireland and stayed with the Conroy
family in Dublin on a number of occasions. Peter and his wife are now sadly
deceased but their only child Miranda
Conroy remembers Mr Poikosen’s visits to their home. They kept in touch
over the years and their re-union was
part of this planned visit.
During his short stay in Ireland, Errki was reunited with Miranda and
met her partner Seamus and her twin
sons Philip and Josh.
Deputy Chief Executive Johnny
Shine, who had met Miranda and her
family during the Rural Electrification 60th Anniversary celebrations,
also met the visiting group and presented both Erkki and Miranda with
a framed copy of an ESB Archive
photograph of the Ritva on one of her
early voyages to Ireland.
At the request of ESB Archives
staff, the Dublin Port Authority hosted a visit to Dublin Port for Mr Poikosen, Miranda and her family. The visiting group were given a full tour of
the Port by Dublin Port PRO Charlie
Murphy and shown the probable location where the MV Ritva would have
berthed to unload its cargo of poles.
The ESB Archives team also recorded an oral interview with Mr
Poikosen, which will be a very important addition to ESB Archive and
for those studying the history of rural
electrification. n
Jim Murphy
Graduation
Jim Murphy pictured following his
graduation from Dublin City University
recently. Jim was conferred with a Masters
of Business Studies (MBS) in Safety and
Health at Work (1st Class Honours). His
final year thesis was on the use and
benefits of Risk Assessment. Jim currently
works in ESB Services and Electric Ireland
as a manager on the Safety, Health,
Environment and Sustainability team.
ESB Networks Ltd
15
Training Centre
in focus
ESB Networks Ltd
page 18
ESB Telecoms
maintains high
levels of service
Nationwide, the number of
planning applications being submitted
to the planning authorities has plummeted dramatically from the peak in
2006, when applications reached a
staggering 92,651.
A mere 28,330 submissions were
made to local authorities across the
country in 2010. This figure is the lowest in 15 years, even lower than in 1995
when numbers were higher at 45,261.
The change is quite dramatic.
Albeit the stark figures for the local
authorities, the ESB Telecoms planning
team remain busy as they are faced
with a continuous roll-over in retention applications for telecommunication towers. Annually 30-45 retention
applications are submitted. The Planning Guidelines state that planning
permissions for telecommunications
infrastructure should only be granted
for a period of five years. The five-year
clause is in place so that local authorities may re-assess the requirements for
installations regularly, given the rapid
pace of development in the industry.
ESB Telecoms has taken an innovative approach to new build applications,
integrating the existing availability of
ESB Telecoms' fibre-optic network and
the existing ESB substations. The stra-
tegic location of the fibre network and
the proximity to new transportation
infrastructure are the key drivers behind new build planning applications,
ensuring ESB Telecoms maintain our
high level of service to operators and
the mobile and broadband networks
are maintained for their customers.
ESB Telecoms is mindful of the
growing demand for 3G coverage
and Ireland now has 1.8 million smart
phone users who consume the majority of mobile data traffic. 3G coverage
provides data rates 30 times faster than
2G rates. During busy periods, the cell
size shrinks, therefore allowance has to
be made for this so that coverage gaps
do not appear during these busy times.
Mobile and broadband operators are
constantly striving to maintain services and are always looking for new sites
to locate telecommunications equipment. ESB Telecoms, as a telecommunications infrastructure provider, is at
hand to provide our service to these
operators, our customers.
This year promises to be a good
year for the planning team: We expect
to have six new build applications submitted this year along with more than
35 retention applications.
Remaining on a positive note, ESB
ESB 'Brothers in Arms'
On Saturday 21st January
2012, Commandant Michael Flannery was guest of honour at a function in Custume Barracks Athlone
to mark his retirement from the
Reserve Defence Force, (RDF).
Comdt Flannery joined the Reserve
Defence Force (Formerly An FCA)
in 1979 and progressed through the
Ranks holding various senior appointments until his retirement as Brigade
Adjuntant, Western Brigade.
As well as serving the State as a
member of the RDF, Michael also
works in Fleet and Equipment, ESB
Networks, based in Galway.
A large number of RDF members
joined Michael at Custume Baracks
to wish him well on his retirement,
including some of his colleagues
from ESB, who are also members of
the RDF. n
Members of the RDF who are also employed by ESB (l-r): Commandant Tom
Cunningham OC HQ Coy 56 Bn, Captain Tommy Mannion 2 I/C D Coy 58 Bn,
Commandant Martin O’Duffy OC BTC W Bde Reserve, Commandant Michael Flannery
Brigade Adjuntant W Bde Reserve, Commandant Liam Thomas 2 I/C 58 Bn, Captain
Martin McCormack Battery Comdr HQ Battery 54 Artillary Reserve.
Telecoms would like to congratulate
Helen Cherry on the completion of
her masters in Town and Country
Planning. This three-year distance
learning course is run by a consortium of universities: London South
Bank, Leeds University, University of
the West of England, Bristol, Dundee
University and the Open University.
The Masters covered a variety of planning issues including Social, Environmental and economic issues at Local,
Regional, National and International
levels. Soft skill such as communication with public/client and negotiation
skills were also covered in the course.
Helen submitted her required thesis on
The effectiveness of the telecommunication industry to engage the community when locating communication
infrastructure, a relevant and beneficial area of research for the Telecoms
Planning team. Again, congratulations
Helen! n
Lurganboy Windfarm, Milford, Co Donegal, in Winter. Photo by Shane Johnston of ESB
Networks.
Deirdre McKenna
graduation
Dublin City University Business School
graduate Deirdre McKenna has recently
been awarded a First Class Honours
Masters Degree in Safety and Health
at Work. Deirdre is an ESBN Production
Support Supervisor for Distribution
& Customer Services Dublin North
Division.
Meter-reading activity
Helen
Cherry
Ploughing Championships Quiz winners
An ESB Networks quiz competition for schools was held at the Ploughing
Championship. The prize was a wind turbine kit for the science class to encourage more interest in science, bring renewable technologies and hands
on interactive learning into the class room. The prize was a wind turbine kit
for the science class to encourage more interest in science, bring renewable
technologies and hands on interactive learning into the class room.
2011 was an extremely successful year
for the ESB Meter Reading activity with
S.L.A.s around Long Term No Access
and Back to Back Estimates being
exceeded. Credit for this rests with the
meter readers themselves and with the
administration staff who are based in
Cork and Limerick. The picture shows
the Meter Reading Team in Cork enjoying
a celebratory cake and coffee (missing
from this photograph are Peg Healy, Mary
Forde and Joan Harrington).
Networks:
from dusk
'til dawn
The Clashavoon 220kV transformer in
twilight. Photo by Liam Delaney.
Above: Ballymahon Vocational School
(l-r): Students. Joseph Murphy, Kevin
McQuaide, Sean McMullen, Jessica Lynch,
Max Nally, Derek Hughes, Shauna Murray
Science Teacher, Billy Nutley ESB Networks
and Pat Horan Physics Teacher. The
competition was won by Chris Mulvey, Moyore,
Mullingar ex pupil of the school.
Inset: Winners: Ard Scoil Ris, North Circular Road Limerick (l-r):Billy Nutley, ESB
Networks; Paul O Connell, Student and Rose Lawlor, Science Teacher.
16 ESB NETWORKS ltd
Sustainability
Update
An interested local spectator at the
open day in Fota Island.
Wilton Sustainability
Committee and the
Community
The Sustainability Committee in Wilton, Cork, were busy
in 2011 continuing the great work
ESB staff carry out in local communities and charities. The committee
and local staff in Wilton, have been
very active in the wider community
promoting and raising awareness on
Sustainability issues including visits
to local national schools, working
with the Cork Environmental Forum, planting trees during National
Tree Week, working on the refurbishment of Edel House in Cork
City and much more.
Their latest excursion saw members of the committee along with
family members attend an open day
at Fota Island Wildlife Park with two
ESB eCars, a Mitsubishi iMiev and a
Nissan Leaf. The eCars generated a
huge amount of interest among visitors on the day. The open day was
organised by Cork County Council
as part of the activities for European
Waste Reduction Week.
The spirit of Sustainability is certainly alive and well in Cork. n
Network crews in
repair works on both
sides of Irish Sea
8 Severe storms for a four-week period between December 12th and
January 6th kept Network Technicians busy over the holiday period.
2011 Year End
Sustainability
Update
2011 proved to be another excellent year for Networks Sustainability with significant progress
made on all aspects of our Sustainability drive.
•Networks CO2 emissions down
20% on the 2006 baseline.
•Wh electricity consumption in
Networks buildings down 13%
on 2010 representing an annual
saving of approx €265,000.
•The Municipal Solid Waste
(MSW) recycling rate increased
to 66%, up 9% on 2010.
•Fuel consumption down 3.7%
on 2010 representing a saving of
€237,000.
•Use of MyMeeting@esb (Webex), the web conferencing
and on line meeting facility, increased by 89% on 2010.
•1,877 Networks staff (52%) completed the on line Sustainability
training course.
An excellent performance
all round. n
Continued from page 1
There was very severe
weather on the nights of December 12th and January 2nd
when Hurricane Friedhelm and
Cyclone Ulli hit Ireland and the
UK, but there was disruption
caused to services by storms
earlier in December and by
gales that followed in the wake
of both Friedhelm and Ulli.
In all, 80,000 ESB customers
were impacted by severe weather
over the six-week period, mostly
in the north and along the western
seaboard, but there was disruption
in pockets of the midlands and as
far south as Wexford.
Despite being named a cyclone, and
not a hurricane, Ulli caused more damage in the Republic than Friedhelm. On
January 2nd, winds reached 169kmph
(105mph) at Mallin Head, the seventh
strongest gust ever recorded there. That
night some 15,000 ESB customers were
without power, but Network Technicians (NTs) were quick to respond and
by 9am on the 3rd, a third of those affected had their supply restored.
At the height of the storm, 11,000
customers in Killybegs Area and
28,000 in Letterkenny Area lost supply. The worst affected areas were the
Fanad and Inishowen peninsulas, the
most northerly parts of the county.
The Emergency Storm Recovery Plan was put into action in both
areas and networks staff responded very well to early morning requests to report for work to fix the
multitude of faults. Poling and timber
cutting contractors were also mobilised. In spite of treacherous conditions
throughout the day, great progress was
made and less than 100 customers were
without supply that night and these
were due to extensive damage that was
impossible to access or repair on Tuesday evening.
Both Friedhelm and Ulli hit Northern Ireland and Scotland much harder than the Republic, so much so that
NIE, Scottish Power and Scottish and
Southern Electricity (S&SE) requested assistance in restoring power to
their customers.
Letter
I think it is high time that
someone thanked ESB for their
great service. I see the great work
you do around the countryside
and around the motorways. We
had very strong storms in the last
few weeks and others had worse.
We didn't lose power while
others did and you did a great job
restoring it for them. You even
went north and helped restore
power there.
Many thanks to your
great workforce.
Jenny Cook
ESB NETWORKS ltd 17
Kieran McCaughy and Ian Meegan
restoring supply to an NIE customer.
The pole was replaced and a new
overhead service installed.
Tommy Mannion, NT
Killybegs, keeps in touch
during storm repairs.
NIE teams also travelled to
Scotland to assist in storm
repairs.
NIE
On Wednesday December 14th,
NIE requested help repairing faults
on the double circuit 275kV Coolkeeragh-Magherafelt line where
snow, ice-loading and strong winds
had caused the line to fall in several
places. Eoin Walron and Supervisor
Kieran O Donnell were dispatched
to the scene.
A team of 17 NTs from Dublin
North Region travelled to a remote
site near Draperstown in Co Derry
where several conductors and a
long section of shield-wiring were
damaged. After working through
the weekend, the line was restored
five days later on Monday 19th.
Two weeks later, when Ulli hit,
there was extensive damage in north
Antrim and along a corridor running
from north of Glasgow to Edinburgh.
NIE reported 35,000 customers without supply because of more than 500
individual faults and in Scotland more
than 160,000 customers were affected
by in excess of 1,000 individual faults.
Following an NIE request for help
on the 4th, 14 ESB crews from Dundalk, Drogheda, Mullingar and Dublin
North, led by Dundalk Area Manager
David O'Neill and Construction Supervisor Dominic Kilpatrick, travelled
across the border to help with the relief
effort, working for three days around
Craigavon and Ballymena before returning to their depots.
Right: ESB Networks vehicles heading to Scotland.
Right: ESB
Networks staff
waiting for ferry to
Scotland.
At Craigavan, on the way
back home.
The 275kV Coolkeeragh-Magherafelt line
where snow, ice-loading and strong winds
had caused the line to fall.
A helping hand for Scotland
The damage caused to the
Scottish distribution and transmission networks was unprecedented and ESB received requests for help from Scottish
Power and SSE. In total, 22 ESB
Networks crews volunteered to
help arriving in Scotland, via
Larne, on Thursday 5th. One
team led by David O'Neill and
Supervisors Pat Crinnion and
Robert Grimes, helped SSE
restore supply along the west
coast of Scotland while another,
led by Back-to-Basics Manager
Seamus Berry, along with Supervisors Dominick Kilpatrick
and Ger Lydon, helped Scottish
Power around Cambusleang
and Glasgow. Despite being
on unfamiliar territory, crews
were able to reach reported
faults quickly thanks to the sat-navs
that they had brought with them!
Some of those in David's
group travelled to the Island
of Islay, famed for its whiskey
distilleries, to make repairs - a
journey that required four ferry
trips in total.
The last of the ESB crews returned to their depots on Tuesday 10th, having spent five
days working on the Scottish
relief effort. n
In conclusion
The efforts made by NTs and support staff at home and abroad were
another remarkable example of the
volunteer spirit that is to be found
throughout ESB. It was also an example of corporate good neighbourliness and the Irish proverb: Ar scáth
a chéile a mhaireann na daoine – We
all depend on one another.
18 ESB NETWORKS ltd
Focus on: Networks Training
Portlaoise
The National Training
Centre (NTC), situated on a 35 acre
site, on Abbeyleix Road, Portlaoise
is part of HR & Support in ESB
Networks.
It supports ESB Networks specifically, and the wider ESB organisation, by providing a wide
range of tailored technical and
non-technical training courses, as
well as expertise in research and
development.
The centre is certified for compliance with OSHAS 18001:2007 SR
for the implementation and maintenance of a management system
for safety and technical training to
ESB Networks.
Facilities and services in
NTC include:
• HV Test Lab.
• Operations network, live up
to 38kV.
• Practical training field, permitting line construction.
• Cable Workshop.
• Metering Workshop for delivery
of MV CT Metering and Whole
Current Metering training.
• Training Hall with 38kV
outdoor cubicles and a broad
range of electrical equipment,
including tap changers, battery
installations, voltage regulators,
etc, permitting training in all
weather conditions.
• IT Training room.
• Biodiversity area.
• Apprentice Programme
management.
• Coordination of training for ESB
Networks and management of
contractor training.
• Vehicle Training.
• Training for non-ESB
customers.
• Live Line Work.
• Utilisation and development
and of SAP LSO for the delivery of training requirements.
NTC Manager Carmel
O’Connor is supported by
Operations Manager Michael
Sweeney, Technical Services
Manager Patrick Deasy,
Demand Manager Willie
McCarthy, IT Specialist
Eddie Nally and 27 other staff
members.
Apprenticeship and
Engineering Programme
There are currently 278 apprentices in the apprenticeship programme. To date 29 have taken
the opportunity of progressing
to Electrical Engineering in DIT/
Manager NTC
Carmel O'Connor
CIT, with up to 32 electrical apprentices due to join this programme next September.
HV Test Lab
The recently modernised HV
Test Lab tests the equipment,
tools and insulated aerial devices used by the 27 ‘rubberglove’ crews in ESB Networks,
in line with European and International standards. The lab
also tests equipment used in
bail and clamp procedures, station rods, rope used for live line
work, spare IADs etc.
The lab plays a valuable role
in the ongoing evaluation of fibre cable using MV network infrastructure. This involves high
voltage testing of both new and
older fibre cable under various
conditions. Additional testing
takes place on the live 10kV
Administration
Kathleen Seale
Caroline Mills
Maria Dempsey
Róisin Phelan
Brigid Delaney
Training Co-ordinator
Teresa Farrell
Apprentice Co-ordinators
Anne Gaskin
Emer McGowan
Maurice Donovan
Larry Cummins in HV Test Lab testing equipment used by newly trained MV Rubber
Glove timber Cutting Crews.
Right: Operations Trg. at Soule
Auguste Switch: Shane Keohane
Dunmanway, Declan Murray
Ballinasloe and Anthony Ruane
Dundalk. Trainer: Stephen McCarthy.
Operations Manager
Michael Sweeney
Craft & General
Ned Peacock
Patrick Culleton
Test Laboratory
Larry Cummins
Dave Sweeney
MV Live Working Training.
Overhead Networks construction.
Technical Services Manager
Patrick Deasy
Training Officers
Alan Kelly
Barry Walsh
Billy Chambers
Billy McMullan
Fintan Hennessy
John McDonagh
Michael Delaney
MIchael Doyle
Michael Treacy
Pat Joyce
Stephen McCarthy
Ted O'Connell
Trevor Walsh
ESB NETWORKS ltd 19
Centre,
Training Demand Manager
Willie McCarthy
IT Specialist
Eddie Nally
Operations network.
Recently the lab tested the tools and
equipment used for ESB Networks’
newly-trained timber-cutting crews.
Training Officer
Brendan Gallagher
Operations Training
NTC develops and delivers Operations training courses, using the
‘lLive operations networks’ that allow participants to operate on networks under normal and fault conditions. This year will see the addition
of Burnwood 38kV Indoor GIS Station to the operations network.
The main additions to this network are the integration of the 20kV
System with the existing networks
and the new 38kV Station. This will
consist of a split MV busbar with
ABB Unigear and Siemens NxPlus
switchgear. It will also incorporate
the substation control system (SCS),
an operation management system
(OMS) and SCADA. The existing
38kV stations and networks have
been upgraded in line with these
developments and will ensure that
training will be on state-of-the-art
‘smart networks’. Operations training is also carried out at all voltage
levels for staff in their own locations. Operations training has also
been delivered to non-ESB customers and in particular to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in relation to the equipment and safety
interface with networks.
Trainer Trevor Walsh programming at NULEC 20/10kV Interface Unit in Oldtown 38kV Station.
NTC also delivered briefing and assessment in telemessing and PICW
duties to all timber contractors.
Driver Training on the Vehicle Training
Track.
Metering
NTC are currently working with
Meter Asset Management to develop and design a new series of
LV, MV and HV CT metering and
testing courses.
Plant and Equipment
NTC works closely with Fleet and
Equipment in relation to its policies
and new developments.
NTC carry out a wide range
of training courses on plant and
equipment including ATVs, 4x4s,
MEWPs, forklifts, chainsaws, etc,
and has just completed a comprehensive training programme and
assessments on lifting equipment
and examiners’ certification for existing and new inspectors. Last October, training was also delivered
to the Civil Defence.
The site is in Leitrim. Pictured (l-r) are: Ted O’Connell, James Gaffney (Toye Poling
Contractors), Martin McCormack – Networks Quality Manager and Michael O’Brien,
Technical Support, North West.
High Tension Low Sag ( HTLS)
The HTLS conductor replacement programme was one of the
major new developments on the
transmission work plan last year.
In conjunction with the Contracting Organisation, Technical Development Asset Management
and ESBI, NTC designed and
delivered a series of training courses on this new technique, with more planned from
February to April.
Safety and Quality
Safety and quality has always been
a core value of NTC. In conjunction with the Safety, Quality and
Environmental Organisation, NTC
briefed MV poling contractors on
safety and quality issues, focusing
on ensuring quality work is done
safely and advising contractors of
the standards required when being
audited. Excellent feedback was received from participants. In 2011,
PR3 Work Programme
The PR3 work programme identified
the need for up-skilling and training,
particularly for HV Stations requirements. A team was set up comprising
individuals from Asset Management,
HVD&C and the NTC to focus on
the development of Network Technicians. A training needs analysis was
designed to identify skills gaps and
development requirements of NTs
and a training plan was developed.
Specific training modules were designed and tailored to meet these
requirements, including courses on
station induction, 38kV station operations, circuit breakers, transformers, tap changer maintenance, faulty
phase earthing, relay replacement
and familiarisation, PICW and L1
commissioning in 38kV Stations. A
38kV station was constructed in the
training hall from retired equipment
to facilitate hands-on training. n
NTC Manager, Carmel O’Connor.
Billy Chambers at LV CT Metering
Installation.
HTLS Training: Mick MCarthy and Derek
Patterson at a semi-strain position in the
Transmisson Training Field.
38kV Cubicles and associated equipment in Training Hall.
Further PR3 related training courses will
be delivered in 2012.
Training Rooms are available in NTC. To
book please email: portlaoise.ntc.room.
[email protected]
20
Energy International
Poulaphouca
gets top marks
Energy
International
page 28
esb international targets
overseas growth
8 A new business development strategy aimed at expanding ESB International’s
overseas presence was presented by senior management at the annual ESBI staff
conference in Croke Park on Friday, December 16th.
Pictured (l-r): Liam O’Sullivan and Enda Dornan of ESBI Asset Management Services with
Claire Morrison, ESBI High Voltage.
At the annual ESBI staff conference were (l-r): Jonathan Cosgrove, Sean Atkinson, Mick Fox, Jacinta Ryan, Ollie Brogan, Manager ESBI, Pat
O’Doherty, ESB Chief Executive, John Gibbons, Mick Mackey, Douglas DeBeer and Noel Caffrey of ESBI.
The strategy focuses on
opportunities in Europe, the
Middle East, South East Asia
and Africa and identifies specific
countries where ESBI will target
its business development efforts
during 2012. It was developed
following extensive analysis of
international market opportunities and a review of ESBI’s
core capabilities.
ESBI’s Business
Development
Manager Sean
Atkinson
presented
the strategy,
emphasising
the need for
ESBI to adopt
a focused
approach to
winning new
business. “This
strategy provides clear meeting – everyone has a part to
play.”
Under the strategy, ESBI will
offer services relating to four
key product lines, namely thermal generation, wind generation,
transmission and distribution
services and specialist services, a
category which includes strategic
consultancy, power systems studies and audits.
The half-day conference took
place the week before Christmas
to accommodate staff returning home to Ireland on holidays.
As in previous years, the event
included a look back at ESBI’s
achievements over the previous 12 months and incorporated
Christmas video messages from
overseas staff. This year, the conference also included a workshop
to engage staff in
Sean Atkinson, ESBI’s Business
discussions on how
Development Manager, presenting the
new ESBI Business Development strategy.
ESBI can continue to
direction about the market sectors and geographies we intend
to target as well as a detailed
outline of the resources and
capabilities we have to service
those markets,” he said.
He also outlined the role of
staff in implementing the strategy, “Everyone in the company
will be involved in delivering this strategy, whether it’s
finding leads,
preparing
bids, managing the
client relationship
or making
sure that
the office is
tidy before a
build its international reputation
to support its business development strategy. All findings from
the workshop have been fed
back to the business development strategy team for incorporation into the implementation plan for 2012.
Among the speakers at the
conference were ESB Chief
Executive Pat O’Doherty and
acting Executive Director of
ESB Energy International, John
McSweeney, both of whom endorsed the strategy and outlined
their commitment to supporting
its implementation.
ESB International Manager Ollie Brogan said, “ESB International has a very strong reputation
around the world which has been
built up over 35 years in over one
hundred countries. Unlike here,
many economies around the world
are thriving and huge investment
is going into energy projects. The
strength of our brand means that
we are in a strong position to secure new work in those markets.
“Success, however, depends on
our ability to manage costs effectively, operate efficiently and continue to deliver very high quality
Ollie Brogan, Manager ESBI, addressing
the staff at Croke Park.
engineering services.”
Three staff working on international projects for ESBI gave
presentations regarding the opportunities and the challenges
of working overseas. “In Africa,
grey hair is respected and valued,
so as a young person, you need all
your powers of persuasion to get
people to adopt the best technical
solution,” said Douglas de Beer,
a project manager working on a
ENERGY INTERNATIONAL 21
Successful overhauls at
Midlands Peat Stations
Shane Cooney, Project Manager
presents weekly Good Catch prize
to APC Turbocare staff.
This year’s conference included a workshop to engage staff in discussions on how ESBI
can continue to build its international reputation to support its business development
strategy.
major transmission and distribution project for ESBI in Tanzania.
“It’s a fast track learning curve
– I’ve learned more in two years
working on this project than I
did in 10 years in Ireland - and
now that it’s on my CV, no one
can take that away from me.”
Jonathan Cosgrove postponed
his wedding for a year to take
up a position in Kulim where
ESBI operates and maintains a
small utility that services a high
tech. business park. He said, “At
Kulim I had to take on responsibilities that were out of my
comfort zone and that I wouldn’t
have had the opportunity to do
at home. It’s hard to be away
from your family and friends,
but it’s definitely been worth it
for my career.”
John Gibbons and his wife Roberta Kelly both work for ESBI in
the Kingdom of Bahrain where
they had their first baby last
year. John says his move there
gave him the opportunity to gain
new experiences, develop his CV
and see the world. He is one of
thousands of ex-pats living and
working in Bahrain, and trains
with the local GAA club several times a week. “If I’d known
that there was a GAA Club in
Bahrain before I went there, my
decision would have been a lot
easier!” n
More than 350 staff attended the annual ESBI Conference in Croke Park.
Climate change
agreement reached
in Durban
Page 25
Commencement of installation of new boiler tubes.
Last year saw the successful
completion of corrosion remediation works at West Offaly Power
(150MW) and Lough Ree Power
(100MW) stations, works that involved two major overhauls in
2010 and 2011 and that saw more
than 400,000 man-hours worked
without a lost time incident (LTI).
The peat stations, located in
Shannonbridge and Lanesborough, use conventional
steam plant with
modern fluidisedbed technology
to burn peat.
They were
commissioned
in 2004/2005
and temporarily
ceased operation
to facilitate Foster
Wheeler, the original
turnkey contractor, to
upgrade boiler tube material to
address corrosion problems.
The extensive works involved
reheater and superheater tube replacement, as well as air-heater
replacements and flue-gas path
repairs. The opportunity was also
taken to complete a mid-life turbine
refurbishment and to carry out extensive works on the fuel and materials handling plant. These works
solved the corrosion problems at
both plants as well as completing
necessary routine maintenance.
The two overhauls were a huge
success and, since the completion of
works, increased performance and
efficiency have been measured in
both plants. Both overhauls were
achieved ahead of schedule and
under budget due to the great commitment and effort of the project
team, which had the full support
and assistance from all staff at
the peat stations, in particular the
many staff who stepped up as contract managers for the duration of
the overhauls.
Safety was the highest priority on the project and a number
of initiatives were undertaken to
ensure zero LTIs. Both overhauls
kicked off with a safety conference
held off-site where the Health &
Safety Plan was presented to staff
and contractors by Ronan O’Flynn,
Project Manager for the 2010 outage, and Shane Cooney, Project
Manager for the 2011 outage. Peat
Rory O’Sullivan, Safety
Representative at
West Offaly Power,
presenting at the Safety
Conference.
John Harding and Tom Hanrahan discuss
the generator rotor removal.
ments which were carried out during and after the Lough Ree 2010
outage were also undertaken for
the West Offaly 2011 works. During a surprise Health and Safety
Authority inspection during the
2011 outage, the two inspectors
noted and complimented the high
standard of safety.
Generation Operations Manager
Nicholas Tarrant said, “The successful completion of both outages
at West Offaly and Lough Ree will
play an important part in delivering
our target of over 90% availability
in 2012. I particularly congratulate
all involved on the excellent safety
record during such major works,
and delivering both outages on
time and within budget serves as a
benchmark for future major overhauls.” n
The strip out of the old boiler nearing
completion.
Stations Manager Jerry McKenna
also made presentations on ESB’s
safety requirements and expectations.
Near-miss reporting was seen
as key to continued learning and
making safety improvements and a
weekly draw was held for all personnel who had submitted good catch
reports. This initiative proved
very popular with staff and
certainly led to a safer
workplace with many of
the improvements made
having originated as
suggestions by staff and
contractors.
A lessons - learned
process ensured improve-
Cleaning deep within the cooling water
inlet chamber during overhaul at West
Offaly Power.
Liam Nolan,
Project Safety
Advisor
presenting
at the Safety
Conference.
22
ENERGY INTERNATIONAL
ESBEI OHSAS 18001
Merge Project
Moneypoint graduations
Moneypoint staff who recently graduated with higher certificates from Dublin Institute
of Technology. Back row (l-r): Jim Rooney, Gordon Drummy, Frank Long, John Ginnane
and Kevin O’Connor. Front row (l-r): Patrick Hynes, Joe Kiernan, ESB Training and Jerry
Leahy. Missing from the photo are James Rooney and Brendan Slattery who received their
certificates in Power Plant Technology Plant Operations while Gordon Drummy, Patrick
Hynes, Jerry Leahy, Kevin O’Connor and Matthew Kelly, who are also absent from the photo,
received their certificates in Power Plant Technology Plant Management. The conferring
ceremony was held in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 12th November 2011 and the certificates
were presented by Doctor Michael Conlon (Head of School of Electrical Engineering
Systems). Local mentors for these courses in Moneypoint are Diarmuid Hanratty and Kevin
Lavery. Congratulations to all involved.
Major wind turbine
contract signing
Pictured at OHSAS 18001 certificate presentation. Front row (l-r): John McSweeney,
Executive Director, ESB Energy International with Brian Gray, Project Director. Back row
(l-r): Michael Fox, Manager, Operations, ESB International; Richard Tobin, Project Manager;
Nicholas Tarrant, Generation Operations Manager; Majella Henchion, Safety Manager,
Generation Operations; Ciaran McManus, Safety Manager, ESB Energy International;
Seamus Deeny, Manager, Projects and Procurement, Generation Operations; and Pat
Naughton, Human Resources Manager, ESB Energy International.
The merger of ESB International and ESB Power Generation
into ESB Energy International
(ESBEI) in early-2010 brought
the opportunity to merge four
existing safety management systems, plus those staff not covered
by these systems, into a new ESBEI certified safety management
system that now effectively covers all non-generation activities
across Ireland and the UK.
With Brian Gray as Project
Director and Richard Tobin as
Project Manager, the merge
project focused on integration
through aligning systems, removing duplication and complexity
and ensuring that all staff were
covered adequately by appropriate safety management arrangements.
“Achieving certification is really only the first step on the ladder;
much work remains to be done to
mould our OHSAS 18001 system
to a position where it is fully integrating how we manage safety
across the business,” commented
Richard Tobin.
Supported by a Project Board of
Pat Naughton, Human Resources;
Seamus Deeny, Projects and Procurement; Michael Fox, ESB International and Majella Henchion,
Generation Operations; with significant input from business line
specialists, the project culminated
with a six day on-site audit by the
independent certifier, SGS.
“Successful achievement of the
OHSAS Certification has established a strong foundation for us to
continue with a view to achieving
further improvement, efficiencies,
integration and cost reduction in
the field of safety management,”
said Project Director Brian Gray.
“While the achievement of the
certification is significant, we are
still in the early stages of achieving integration and streamlining
within the business. Having SGS
provide independent and objective feedback on our efforts will
ensure we stay on track to delivering further safety improvement.”
The achievement of this most
recent OHSAS certification in ESBEI ensures that all business activities within the directorate are
now governed by an independently validated safety management system. n
Artist Shay O’ Byrne wins first prize at an
international art competition in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Pictured at the Mynydd y Betws Turbine Supply Agreement signing are: Back row (l-r):
Stuart Kendall and Prisilla Yuvaneswaran of Siemens; with Quentin Denis of ESB Legal.
Middle row (l-r): Kevin Moloney of Siemens; Ken Boyne of Asset Development; Rob
Fitzgerald of ESB International, Donie Cahalane of the Business Services Centre and Fergal
Downes of ESB Wind Development. Front row (l-r): Peter Chapell of Siemens, Brian Ryan of
ESB Wind Development and Nick Ward of Siemens.
ESB signed two major contracts,
in December 2011, with Siemens
for 15 wind turbine generators
at Mynydd y Betws wind farm in
Wales and for nine wind turbine
generators at Carrickatane wind
farm in Co .Tyrone.
The Mynydd y Betws site was
acquired from a British developer
in 2010 for design and construction by ESB, while Carrickatane
is a project developed in-house by
ESB. Both projects are now under
construction and are expected to
be commissioned by early 2013.
The contracts were awarded to
Siemens following a detailed tender
and contract negotiation process.
The technical assessment and negotiations was led by wind turbine expert Rob Fitzgerald, with assistance
from ESB International personnel
with expertise in project management, civil design, wind analysis
and wind farm O&M. Quentin
Denis provided legal services and
Grace Arthur, Claire Amerlynck
and Gary Kavanagh led the financial evaluation, with Killian O’Shea
leading the safety assessment and
negotiations. The overall process
was led by Fergal Downes of ESB
Wind Development and overseen
by Donie Cahalane from ESB Procurement. n
Disability Traineeship
Programme
2011
News page 03
Artist and ex ESB staff member, Shay
O’Byrne, being presented with first prize at
Al-Jahili Fort.
Former Turlough Hill and
Liffey Stations staff member Shay
O’Byrne was selected as a finalist in
the second International Falconry
Festival Art Competition in Abu
Dhabi, which was held between December 11th and 18th.
As a finalist in the open submission competition, Shay was sponsored by the organisers to attend
the festival, where he went on to
win first prize for his painting Surprise Encounter in the International
Art Competition. The painting sold at
the exhibition and is destined for the
USA.
There were many activities during the week-long festival, which
was shared between Desert Camp
at Ramah and the Festival Site at AlJahili Fort in the city of Al Ain, where
the exhibition was held. Highlights
included hunting with falcons on
camels at Desert Camp, falcon racing,
saluki racing, conferences, lectures,
workshops, falconry displays and art
exhibitions, culminating in the Grand
Parade of Nations with 75 countries
represented.
It was a truly international festival
hosted by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President
of the UAE, the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, and the
Emirates Falconers Club. Shay who
is also a falconer, had a most memorable week, where new friends were
made in a unique sharing of cultures
in the celebration of art and the art of
falconry.
Originally from Dublin, Shay lives
in Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow, where
his studio is based. His love of the
outdoors and wild places has been
hugely inspirational in the development of his work, in particular his interest in the dynamics of nature and
the landscape. He is represented by
Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin, Kilcock
Art Gallery and Tuckmill Gallery in
Naas, Co. Kildare.
Shay has a signed limited edition
giclee print of the winning painting Surprise Encounter for sale that
is now available with a special 10%
discount to ESB Staff. n
For more information visit:
www.seamusobyrne.com
The winning painting, Surprise Encounter,
oil on canvas, 80x100cm.
Successful ET&R over-the-counter
trading event
Pictured during the recent site audit at Cathaleen’s Fall (l-r): Mark Lawlor, Project Manager;
Seamus Deeny, Projects and Procurement Manager; Bríd Horan, Executive Director, ESB
Services and Electric Ireland; Craig Adamson, Site and Commissioning Manager, ESBI;
Barry Linehan, Quality Control, ESBI; Padraig Dooley, Plant Manager, Erne Stations and
Harry Doherty, Civil Engineer, Erne Stations.
Executive Director
carries out Site Safety
Audit at Cathaleen’s Fall
A site safety audit of the refurbishment project at Cathaleen’s Fall
Power Station in Ballyshannon took
place in December during a visit to
Donegal by ESB Services and Electric Ireland Executive Director Bríd
Horan.
The Cathaleen’s Fall Power Station comprises two 22.5 MW Kaplan hydro generators. The station
was constructed in the late 1940s
and was commissioned in 1951. In
2008, ESB undertook the extensive
refurbishment of the two units and
associated C&I and common electrical plant. This was the first major refurbishment works involving
turbine removal carried out in Erne
in its 60 year history. Generation
Overhaul Group assigned a project
team to Ballyshannon which comprised staff from both Generation
Operations and ESB International.
The works on the first machine,
Erne Unit 4, commenced in 2010
and were carried out whilst the second machine, Unit 3, remained on
load. Once Unit 4 works and testing were complete, the unit was
returned to operation in July 2011,
whilst works then commenced on
Unit 3.
At this time, Unit 3 works are
progressing well with the turbine
returned to site from the main contractor’s workshop and installed before Christmas 2011. The focus for
the project is to complete the reassembly works and return the unit to
service in May of this year.
Bríd was given a detailed tour
of Cathaleen’s Fall and spoke to a
number of station and project staff.
She carried out an extensive safety
audit and gained a good understanding of the safety management systems. Generation Operations procedures and processes used to carry
out the overhaul were explained
and, because of the opportune current status of the overall project, it
was possible to show the completed
Unit 4 whilst also observing the
works in progress on Unit 3.
Bríd complimented both station
and project teams for the successful
works and excellent safety record to
date. n
Members of staff from ET&R.
Energy Trading and Regulation (ET&R) took part in the
fourth over-the-counter (OTC)
trading event on Wednesday January 11th.
The OTC Trading platform developed by Tullett Prebon is the
first screen-based bilateral trading
platform for the Single Electricity Market (SEM) in Ireland. It is
a significant enhancement to the
traditional power auction process
which allows generators and suppliers lock in forward power prices
rather than be exposed to the price
volatility of the pool.
The OTC allows traders to offer and bid for financial swap
contracts and continue to adjust
those bids and offers until they are
matched. All deals are executed
Webex
The use of Webex has continued to
grow at a fast pace. Up to the end of
November, total ESB usage in minutes was 991,439, in comparison to
497,661 in 2010. In Energy International, we recorded 105,954 minutes
of Webex use in 2010. This increased
to 340,127 in 2011 - a total increase
of more than 220%, which was well
above the 100% target set at the beginning of the year.
anonymously on the platform and
the counterparty is only identified
once a deal is struck. It is anticipated that the OTC will continue
to evolve and ultimately become
the primary vehicle for power
trading in the SEM.
OTC is a new trading process
for ET&R and its implementation
required the development of new
trading operations and processes
involving
participation
from all staff across
ET&R.
A number of
senior managers including
Chief Executive
Pat O’Doherty,
Energy International Execu-
tive Director John McSweeney
and Asset Development Manager
Paddy Hayes, visited ET&R to
observe the progress of the OTC
event. Viewing took place in the
conference room where dynamic
movements in bids and offers
could be viewed in real-time
without distracting the traders.
Pat O’Doherty expressed his
satisfaction that OTC Trading
was now an established
part of the Irish
power market
and commended
ET&R for its
significant role
in making this
happen. n
Jenny McGovern and Shane
O’Sullivan, ET&R Power Traders,
demonstrate the OTC Platform to
Pat O’Doherty.
OTC Event In Numbers:
2-Hour Event
385 Bids/Offers Submitted
56 Trades Executed
222 GWh Traded
€15m Power Sold
Emmett Dunleavy explains the OTC process.
Sustainability review 2011
Looking back on 2011 in ESB
Energy International, we can report
another year of major achievements
in sustainability.
Pictured at the recent ET&R OTC event
were (l-r): ET&R Front Office Manager
Ronan McCoy, Chief Executive Pat
O’Doherty and ET&R Manager Rory
McGowan.
Energy Use (Electrical)
Where metered, energy use has again
recorded decreases during 2011. In
Stephen Court, total energy reduction was 14.3% on 2010 and the Cork
office delivered a 10% reduction.
Water
Water monitoring was installed in
some station and office locations in
2011 and we will soon establish a
baseline for target reductions in coming years.
Waste
In offices, a target of recycling 80%
of waste was set. This target was not
achieved, with Head Office at 74%
and Stephen Court at 64%.
However, waste weights were down
significantly, with the total at Fleet
Street falling to 77% of 2010’s figure
and the Cork office annual total was
at 88% of the previous year. It remains a challenge in 2012 to achieve
the 80% recycling target in the larger
office locations. Recycling targets at
generating stations, similarly, were
a challenge with recycling levels expected to be short of the 75% of waste
target.
Sustainability E-Learning module
A target of 50% of Energy International staff participating in sustainability
e-learning was set for 2011. Despite a
very slow start, the end of year figures
show that this goal was attained.
Sustainability Awards
Of the 12 shortlisted entries for
ESB Sustainability Awards, eight
were from Energy International
with the eventual winner being
Rousch. Congratulations once
again to them and all the other excellent entries.
Looking ahead to 2012
After the good achievements recorded in 2011, we will be setting
more challenging targets for this
year in the coming weeks. We
would like to thank all staff for
their co-operation during the year.
Each person can contribute a small
amount (turning out lights, turning off computers, correct use of
waste stations, etc), which makes a
difference in the long run. n
24
Life and Times of
an ESBI Engineer
Noel Clarke, Quality Manager, ESB
International.
We catch up with Noel
Clarke who joined ESBI in 2008.
Noel’s primary degree is in Information Technology, where he
specialised in communications
technology engineering. He is a
member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and
the Chartered Quality Institute
(CQI) and attained chartered
status with the CQI two years
ago.
Noel’s background in quality
management stretches back to
1989 when he was technical and
project leader on a project to attain laboratory accreditation for
a calibration organisation and
retains a high level of interest in
precision metrology today.
Noel’s roles and responsibilities
“Despite trying to operate on
a ‘Plan, Do, Check, Act’ model
myself, I rarely have a typical
day, which is great,” says Noel.
“My role requires coordination
of external audits by the certification body on ESBI’s ISO9001
registered quality management
system. I am involved in a range
of diverse areas of the company
including: customer satisfaction,
continual improvement, the
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) committee, managing the internal quality audit
team and audit planning and
execution.
“As a trained lead auditor in
quality, health and safety and
environmental management
systems, I apply these skills in
ESBI and other areas of the ESB
Group. I am also a member of
two National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) technical
committees which contribute to
developments in national and
international standards in quality and asset management. Close
cooperation with the health and
safety and environmental teams
is another ongoing aspect of my
work and this will reap future
rewards in relation to the potential for synergies and cost savings arising from integrating the
common aspects of each of the
respective systems if or when
the need arises.”
Personal interests
Outside work, Noel keeps fit by
jogging on Bettystown Beach,
he is a keen cyclist and has been
known to sing in the local choir.
He is also a Dublin GAA season
ticket holder.
Finally
“Quality Managers are generally tasked with holding a mirror up to the organisation,” says
Noel. “They do this with the sole
intention of helping the organisation to identify opportunities
for improvement and then to implement them systematically. In
doing so, we try to ‘lock-in’ any
progress made. Throughout my
time in the company I have been
given a myriad of opportunities
to use my skills and abilities and
to work with fantastic colleagues
whose input I greatly value.
“Phase 2 of the Quality Improvement Programme has recently been initiated so we are
entering a really exciting period
in the months ahead. The level
of staff engagement to date has
been truly amazing and it will
provide an excellent foundation on which to develop as the
project progresses.” n
Network crews in repair
works on both sides of
Irish Sea
Page 16
Teamwork at play.
Seán Ramsay of ESB Energy International’s Learning and Development team judging
the entries in the Women in Engineering K’NEX Challenge to design and build an
underwater turbine.
Women in Engineering
The annual Women in Engineering programme took place over
a three-day period last November
and involved participation of 13 female transition year students from
schools in Dublin. Through a series
of presentations, engineering challenges and a visit to Poulaphouca
Dam, the students were given an
insight into what it is like to have a
career in engineering.
The programme included presentations from Louise Connolly,
Adelina Henderson, Chloe Kinsella, Patrick Crowley, Susan Stack
and Alan McDonald. The students
were put through their paces with
a K’NEX challenge where they
designed and built an underwater
turbine with the help of Eileen Morgan, Elizabeth Hendrick and Christina Coleman-Kenny. They also got
the chance to use some surveying
equipment under the direction of
Sinéad Conlan and Emer Brogan.
Catherine Halpin of Generations
Operations facilitated the visit to
Poulaphouca Dam and Dervla
O’Flaherty and the e-Cars team
gave demonstrations of ESB’s electric vehicles, all of which were of
huge interest to the students.
Thanks to ESB Energy International’s Learning and Development
Team who delivers and supports the
programme each year, particularly
Ian Riordan, Seán Ramsay, Lisa McCord and Bernardine Moloney. n
A time
for good
health
Life page 40
Santa’s annual visit to ET&R
Steve and Finn Johnson with their family
in Santa’s Grotto.
Pictured with Santa are Niamh Curtis with daughter Brooke and Bernie Behan with
Molly and Aine.
Santa pulled out all of the stops
to make his traditional Christmas
visit to Energy Trading and Regulation (ET&R).
His visit was two days before
Christmas, which meant that Santa
Anthony and Jennifer Kelly with Arten
and Inna during their visit to see Santa.
had to use his second, much smaller
sleigh, as the big one was still being
loaded up for Christmas Eve night.
This smaller sleigh only needs two
reindeer to pull it along, but as
many of the boys and girls pointed
out, Rudolf still had to come as he is
the only one that can show the way
with his bright shiny red nose.
The Chief Executive and the
adults enjoyed coffees and mince
pies while the kids got stuck into
sweets, crisps, popcorn and drinks.
Movies, colouring and a Nintendo
Wii provided plenty of entertainment as the children waited their
turn to visit Santa.
The grotto, again, was remarkable
– complete with fireplace, Christmas
tree, reindeer and decorations. The
facial expressions of the children
as they entered the grotto made all
the preparations worthwhile. Wideopen eyes and mouths reflected
nervousness, awe, anticipation,
shock and a real sense of mystery
– and that was just among the parents!
Santa got caught up in the innovation drive within ET&R by asking the children to leave a green
apple out for Rudolf instead of the
traditional carrot. It seems that after thousands of years, Santa had
found out that Rudolf sometimes
likes to take a bite out of a green apple. How Santa came to know this
will have to remain a secret though
between Santa and the 80 children
who visited. n
Climate change agreement
reached in Durban
COP President, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, receives a standing ovation at conference.
Photo: Courtesy of UNFCCC.
To those who have been following the international negotiations on
global warming and climate change
over the last 20 years, it may come
as a surprise that the normally indecisive group of countries who participate in the annual negotiations,
known as the Conference of Parties
(COP), actually came to a political
agreement to extend the Kyoto Protocol into a second commitment period (2013-20).
The agreement, reached in December 2011 and known as ‘the Durban
Platform’, also made a formal decision to negotiate the terms of a new
legal agreement that would bind all
countries, both developed and developing, to emissions reduction targets for the period after 2020. This
marks the first time that all major
emitters, including China, the USA
and India, have agreed to a common
framework for reduction targets.
The deal also reaffirms the longterm importance of carbon offset
credits generated by clean energy
projects under the clean development mechanism (CDM), as part of
a global strategy to address global
warming and now includes carbon
capture and storage (CCS) within
the CDM.
The agreement also sets the
framework for the establishment
of the Green Climate Fund (GCF),
which is designed to channel as
much as US$100 billion per year to
help developing countries mitigate
and/or adapt to climate change.
For ESB and other European
utilities, this deal creates more
long-term regulatory certainty and
reinforces our strategy to reduce
the carbon intensity of our business activities through renewable
energy project development, improved efficiency of our existing
operations and our participation in
CDM projects.
Carbon Solutions team members
Afra Ronayne, Edward Weinberg
and Shaw Chamunorwa took time
off from their negotiations with
South African wind and biomass
project developers to participate in
the event. n
ESB Athletic Club update
Olympic countdown started
Health & Habitat, page 32
Second WestWave
Associate Partner
workshop a major success
Pictured at the recent WestWave Associate Partner event (l-r): Brendan Barry, Manager,
Ocean Energy; Colm de Burca, formerly Ocean Energy; Cera Slevin, Consultant, Ocean
Energy; Eoin Sweeney, SEAI; James Tedd, Project Manager, Ocean Energy and John
Fitzgerald, Technology Manager, Ocean Energy.
ESB Ocean Energy hosted the
second workshop for associate partners of WestWave, the 5MW pilot
wave farm project, in Dublin on
Monday November 21st. The WestWave Associate Partner group welcomes participants from all sectors
with an interest in wave energy and
promotes a collaborative approach
to the development of the WestWave project.
The meeting was attended by
many representives of government
agencies, including SEAI, GSI,
Marine Institute and Údarás na
Gaeltachta, UCC, UCD, NUI Maynooth, port and harbour representatives, Mayo and Donegal County
Councils, engineering companies
Alstom and Siemens, technology
partners Aquamarine Power, Pelamis Wave Power, Ocean Energy and
Wavebob, the Marine Renewable
Industry Association (MRIA) and
other supply chain companies. Participants from the UK and elsewhere
joined the meeting via Webex.
Attendees were given presentations including a WestWave project
progress update and a wave technologies update, as well as the outcome
of a recent supply chain study that
highlights the requirements needed
to deliver the WestWave project in
Ireland by 2015. Guest speaker from
Eoin Sweeney from Sustainable Energy Association Ireland (provided
an overview of ocean energy policy
and frameworks in Ireland.
ESB Ocean Energy representatives included Colm de Búrca, John
Fitzgerald, Cera Slevin, Brendan
Barry and James Tedd, all of whom
presented at the meeting. n
A copy of the presentations and the supply
chain study report can be downloaded from
the WestWave website www.westwave.ie.
Remembering Lynda
8 Finance staff present cheques to Enable Ireland and Special Olympics Ireland
Paddy Hayes with Lynda’s husband Richard, family
and representatives from Enable Ireland and Special
Olympics Ireland.
Padraig McManus, Retired Chief Executive; Pat O’Doherty, Chief Executive; Paddy Hayes, Asset Development Manager; Lynda’s
husband Richard Collins, Finance staff and ESB colleagues at the presentation.
Finance staff in Generation
Operations and Generation’s Assets & Trading held a charity event
in memory of their colleague, Lynda O’Brien, who died tragically in
February 2011.
A sponsored walk in Wicklow,
coffee mornings in Head Office
and Generating Stations across the
country, together with a raffle for a
Manchester United jersey were organised by the staff. The proceeds
of these events were shared between Enable Ireland and Special
Olympics Ireland, both of which
were close to Lynda’s heart.
Thanks to the outstanding generosity of the staff, €9,300 was
raised and this was matched by a
contribution from ESB. A presentation of the cheques to the charities took place in late 2011 with
members of Lynda’s family and
representatives of Enable Ireland
Our late colleague
Lynda O’Brien.
and Special Olympics Ireland in
attendance.
Lynda’s first anniversary was
on 3rd February 2012 and she
is greatly missed by her many
friends in ESB. Lynda’s anniversary was commemorated on the
day at the First Friday Mass in
the Oratory in Head Office. n
26
Sustainability
winners
Increase in salmon
stocks at ESB Hatcheries
To celebrate overall place in 2011
Sustainability Awards, Rousch Power
in Pakistan held a barbecue on
site for staff, their families, clients,
school personnel and contractors
representatives. Over 200 people were
in attendance at which Ian Whitehead,
Plant Manager, Rousch Power
presented the trophy to the Chairman
of Sustainability, Tahir Aman. As part
of the celebrations, Paul Greenwood
is pictured presenting prizes for the
Sustainability colouring competition
to winner Abdullah Hussain (son of
Operations Manager, Mian Hussain) and
runner up Eishat-ur-Razia (daughter of
Senior Shift Operator Muhammad Jamil).
Bright lights against the
winter skies of Ireland
Light trails of a truck travelling past Lough Ree Station. Photo by Seamus Finn.
LRP celebrates family win
Shane Finn is pictured in DCU,
along with his father Seamus from
Lough Ree Power Station, on Saturday 5th November 2011 after Shane
won a silver medal in the Irish junior science olympiad.
To qualify, students had to have a
minimum of six As in Higher Level
papers in the Junior Cert, including
As in science and maths, and be under 16 on the 1st of January this
year.
All participants received a certificate, with the top three pupils receiving gold medals, the next three silver
and the next three bronze.
The gold and silver medal winners
are invited to represent Ireland at the
2011 International Junior Science
Olympiad which was held in Durban,
South Africa in early December.
The bronze medal winners are
on the reserve list.
Before departing for Durban
on Wednesday November 30th,
the team attended an intensive,
four-day residential programme
in Dublin City University,
organised by Ir JSO principal
scientist and pedagogical leader
Dr Paraic James of DCU. The
team was also accompanied to
Durban by Ir JSO director and
delegation leader Dr Michael
A Cotter. The delegation arrived
in Durban on December 1 and
arrived back in Dublin on
December 12. n
Taking a clip from salmon for DNA analysis as part of AARC Programme.
The return of adult Atlantic
salmon to the three ESB-operated
salmon hatcheries showed some encouraging signs of increased stocks
in 2011. This follows mixed results
over the previous two years, due
mainly to extreme weather conditions in 2009 and 2010. On the
River Shannon, the automatic fish
counters at Ardnacrusha and Parteen recorded a large increase in
the number of wild fish ascending
the fish lifts, with more than 2,000
salmon passing upstream of the
dams for the first time in over two
decades. Elsewhere, the returns to
the River Lee and River Erne were
greater than those of recent years.
At Parteen Salmon Hatchery, the
return of over 1,000 hatchery fish
provided adequate stock to carry
out the River Shannon breeding
programme . Starting in early December and continuing through the
New Year, more than one million
eggs were incubated in the hatchery by ESB Fisheries staff. Once
hatching occurs from early March
onwards, more than 200,000 fry
will be reared within the hatchery
with any excess fish planted out by
fisheries staff in upper tributaries
of the Shannon to boost the future
stock of salmon returning there.
In addition to normal hatchery
activities, a new filtering system
has been installed at Parteen. This
provides water of much improved
quality to the hatching eggs and
improves survival to the fry stage.
As part of the EU funded Atlantic
Aquatic Resource Conservation
(AARC) programme, begun in
2010, a large proportion of 2010
and 2011 wild fish were genetically
sampled as they passed upstream,
as were all hatchery fish used in
the Parteen breeding programme.
The initial results from this programme, being carried out in part-
nership by University College Cork
(UCC) and Inland Fisheries Ireland,
show encouraging signs with high
survival rates detected during surveys carried out in August 2010
upon rivers into which juvenile fish
were released. It is hoped that this
experiment will give information
on the effectiveness of hatchery
restocking and the role of hatcheries in improving salmon stocks. In
addition, the sampling may also
indicate what adjustments need to
be made to the habitat in order to
maximise juvenile salmon output.
The head of the AARC project, Dr
Philip McGinnity of UCC, recently
complimented ESB staff on their
significant and vital contribution to
the programme.
On the River Erne, at Ballyshannon, salmon returns compared favourably with previous years, with
more than 700,000 eggs available
for rearing and planting out on the
Erne system. Station spillage from
Cathaleen’s Fall station from midNovember signalled the end of fish
passing upstream, concluding encouraging overall returns for 2011
with nearly 1,500 wild adult salmon ascending the Lower Erne.
On the River Lee, at Carrigadrohid, salmon returns did not
match the improvements seen on
the River Shannon. Nevertheless,
an adequate number of hatchery
fish returning ensures that there
will be more than enough stock
available to carry out the breeding programme and provide the
target number of smolt releases in
2013 of 60,000.
Commenting on the adult salmon returns, ESB Fisheries biologist
Dr Denis Doherty said a number
of factors contributed to the favourable returns. “The removal
of the drift nets off the Irish coast
in 2005 was designed to improve
the number of returning salmon
to Irish rivers and the increase
in numbers was always expected
to be gradual over a number of
years,” he said.
“The past two seasons have
been difficult for salmon, due to
the unexpected extreme weather
conditions and the return to our
more normal maritime climate
conditions gives a truer picture of
the health of the salmon stocks.
The recent improvements made
to the Ardnacrusha Borland fish
lift proved to be a major boost to
fish passage. At Parteen Regulating Weir, water discharge through
the fish pass was monitored daily
and adjusted to suit the levels of
the river above the weir. All these
factors contributed to the good results, but a long-term view must be
taken of results. We will be in a
better position after a full decade
of removal of drift nets to assess if
we are achieving our goal of restoring salmon numbers to sustainable
levels in our rivers.”
ESB Fisheries Manager Noel Greally paid tribute to the Ardnacrusha
staff for the quality of the refurbishment work on the fish lift which has
clearly had a significant impact on
returns to the catchment. n
Fisheries officers, PJ Cannon and Tom Colgan about to take ova from salmon at Parteen.
ESB Fisheries experiment
with eel-deflection equipment
Fisheries Officers, Tom Colgan, Tom Byrne and Pat Kelly prepare the jetty at Clonlara for the
Infrasound Experiment.
A collaborative research
project involving infrasound
fish-deflection technology is taking place on the Ardnacrusha
headrace canal at Clonlara.
Led by Dr. Damien Sonny, a
consultant with Belgian company
Profish Technology, the project
is a collaboration between ESB
Fisheries Conservation, NUI
Galway and Hydro Quebec and
aims to investigate the effectiveness of infrasound technology in
diverting downstream migrating
silver eels from potential hazards
such as turbine passages. Infrasound is a high frequency sound
wave, which may cause avoidance movements in downstream
migrating silver eels.
Before the arrival of the Profish
Technology and the Hydro Quebec research teams on site, ESB
Fisheries Conservation obtained
permission from Waterways Ireland to place the infrasound projectors into the headrace canal,
which is also used as a navigation
channel for leisure boats moving upstream and downstream
through Ardnacrusha Hydro
Station. A new jetty was erected
from which boats and the equipment could be launched. Other
equipment and large anchors
were also placed within the headrace canal, onto which the infrasound projectors were attached.
The anchor points within the
water channel should withstand
peak flow conditions.
The site at Clonlara was chosen because the channel’s 30m
width allows for the
optimum
ESB Fisheries
observaConservation is
tion of eel
confident that
movement
we can greatly
by undercontribute
water camto the conservation
eras and the
of European
high flow
eel stocks.
rate alsoreplicates
discharge
conditions through typical hydro
electric stations. The channel is
also home to naturally-occurring
eel.
The project involves two infrasound projectors, placed in the
“
The site at Clonlara in high flow with the buoys from which the Infrasound projectors are
suspended in the foreground.
headrace canal and deployed in a
diagonal series at approximately
300 to the bank. The experiments will involve initial tests
to determine optimal infrasound
frequencies and the effective
range by direct observation of
eel behaviour using underwater
cameras. The underwater cameras allow for direct observations to be made on changes in
patterns of downstream migrating eel behaviour. It is hoped
that avoidance of the infrasound
field will be seen by observing
eel movements to the other side
of the headrace canal.
Welcoming the partnership
with Profish Technology, NUIG
and Hydro Quebec, Noel Greally,
Manager of ESB Fisheries Conservation and Property & Asset
Recovery said that such a partnership approach was the way
forward in developing new methods of handling eel migration.
“The Irish Eel Management Plan
requires ESB to undertake trap
and transport programmes annually, pending development of
what are termed ‘engineered solutions’. In the past two years we
have been involved in a project
with French Hydro Power Company, EdF, in order to evaluate
an eel migration peak technology. Hydro Quebec is the world’s
largest hydro generator, with 59
hydro plants, including 12 stations of over 1,000 MW capacity, with the largest, Beauharnois
Hydroelectric Plant, situated on
the St. Lawrence River in Canada generating up to 1,900 MW
and comprising of 38 turbines.
By developing such partnerships,
ESB Fisheries Conservation is
confident that together we can
develop improved eel migration
protocols and greatly contribute
to the conservation of European
eel stocks.” n
Pictured at the launch of the Infrasound
Experiment (l-r): Noel Greally, ESB; Damien
Sonny, Profish; Ruairi McNamara, NUIG; T.K.
McCarthy, NUIG; Jean Caumartin, Hydro
Quebec; Tom O’Brien and Dennis Doherty,
ESB. Missing from the photo: René Tardif of
Hydro Quebec.
Electric and Magnetic
Fields
Since the 1970s, the alleged illhealth effects from powerline electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) have
been an ongoing topic of debate.
While the issue is most likely to arise
during new overhead line projects,
public concerns can also arise from
existing electrical infrastructure.
Electric field levels are primarily
affected by the voltage level of a
circuit whereas magnetic field levels are primarily affected by the
amount of current or load flowing
through the circuit. The strength of
both the electric and magnetic field
decreases as the distance from the
source increases. Electric fields will
not travel through solid objects such
as trees, walls or circuit insulation.
Magnetic fields are more difficult to
screen and will travel through solid
objects such as walls and trees.
Studies on possible health effects
have been reviewed by independent and authoritative international
and national review panels of scientific experts. These studies have not
established that power frequency
electric and magnetic fields encountered in normal living and working
conditions cause adverse health effects in humans.
As a responsible organisation,
ESB regards the protection of health,
safety and welfare of its staff and
the general public as the top priority
in all its activities and recognises the
concerns that some members of the
public have in relation to EMFs.
To address any individual concerns that are raised in relation to
electric and magnetic fields, ESBI
provides a service in measuring
EMF levels on behalf of ESB Networks. Measurement sources often
include lines, cables, substations
- typically at transmission voltage
levels but also occasionally at distribution voltages. These measurements are then compared to the
European Union (EU) and the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)
guidelines on continuous exposure
to 50Hz EMF. The reference levels
in these guidelines for the general
public are 5kV/m (kilo-Volts per metre) and 100µT (micro-Tesla) for the
electric and magnetic fields respectively. n
For comparison purposes, the chart below
shows typical EMF levels in the vicinity of overhead lines and typical levels that are present
immediately adjacent to a range of everyday
household electrical appliances. EMF levels
from both ESB Plant and domestic appliances
are considerably less than the EU and ICNIRP
Guidelines. As indicated in the chart, it is often the case that higher levels of EMF can be
found from everyday appliances within the
home than from nearby ESB plant. For further
information on EMF please contact either [email protected] or [email protected]
28
A dam fine inspection
gives Poulaphouca top marks
8 Bernie Healy returns to Poulaphouca, one of the Liffey Stations, to find that staff there have been working on major
improvements to maintain the life of the station.
How many Dubliners crossing
the River Liffey realise that the water flowing beneath them has played
a part in keeping on their lights at
home?
Indeed, the Liffey’s waters play a
three-fold role in hydro-generation
with the river being home to three
power plants, located at Poulaphouca, Golden Falls and Leixlip,
which together provide 38MW of
power - there are two 15MW generators at Poulaphouca and two 4MW
generators each at Golden Falls and
Leixlip. Built between 1937 and
1947, Poulaphouca was the second
hydro-electric station built in the
country after Ardnacrusha.
Few members of the public will
have seen or visited the Liffey Stations but the impact on the landscape of the station at Poulaphouca,
in particular, is phenomenal. The
100ft dam has created the largest
reservoir in the country, the Poulaphouca Reservoir, which covers
an area of 4,000 acres and has a
50-mile long shoreline. The reser-
voir is also known as ‘Blessington
Lakes’ because it actually involves
the flooding of two different river
valleys –the Liffey Valley and that
of the King’s River Valley.
In addition to providing a 150 foot
head of water for the generation of
electricity, the Poulaphouca reservoir is key to ensuring that Dublin
and its surrounding districts and
towns have a clean, reliable source
of drinking water – 85% of the water that comes out of Dublin’s kitchen
and bathroom taps come from Poulaphouca and the Leixlip Reservoirs.
Poulaphouca also provides most of
the water used in County Kildare
and a substantial amount of County
Wicklow’s water supply.
When the reservoir was first flooded by ESB in 1940, Dublin Corporation was scheduled to take 25 million gallons per day, but the amount
extracted has now grown steadily
to 110 million gallons per day. Obviously, in times of low rainfall, the
amount of drinking water extracted
affects the amount of water avail-
able for power generation.
The Poulaphouca and Leixlip
reservoirs also play host to a wide
range of water sports activities. ESB
plays a key role in ensuring that
they are both havens for anglers:
at Poulaphouca, for example, some
12,000 fish are released into the
reservoir each year and, on some
weekends, you can find more than
200 anglers fishing from its shores.
Roach is the dominant species in the
lake with some perch also available.
In recent years, some roach catches
over 100lbs have been recorded. It is
also considered one of the best locations for pike fishing in the country.
Much of the surrounding lands are
also managed by ESB, which has
provided a number of amenity sites
around the reservoir shore. These
and the numerous walks and forests
in the area provide leisure activities
for thousands of people every day
during the summer.
Poulaphouca, Golden Falls and
Leixlip stations are today operated
remotely from the pumped storage
power station at Turlough Hill, near
Glendalough. These Liffey Stations
are visited and inspected regularly to
make sure that they are maintained
to maximum levels of efficiency and
public safety.
Perhaps, the most important visit
to Poulaphouca and its sister stations
is by the External Dam Safety Committee (EDSC), which operates according to a rolling 5 and 10 year inspection cycle. The EDSC acts as an
external auditor to ensure the good
maintenance of all dams, reservoirs
and waterways operated by ESB.
The dams are formally inspected
annually by an internal inspection
team, with a more thorough inspection every five years by the EDSC.
Holding back
millions of galThe Poulaphouca lons of water, it
is critical that
and Leixlip reseach of these
ervoirs also play
dams is well
host to a wide
maintained – a
range of water
structural failsports activities
ure would cause
“
Dominic Moore and John Twamley, both
Civil Works Dept. carrying out some of their
daily duties on the Dam.
The finished article, Penstocks Painting
project completed.
Inside of Scaffold arrangement for the Penstock Painting Project.
an unprecedented disaster along the
Liffey Valley. The most recent 10
Year EDSC inspection took place in
May last year. In advance of the inspection in May, staff demonstrated
huge pride in their stations and made
a tremendous effort to prepare the
stations for the arrival of the EDSC.
A Project Master Plan for the visit
was prepared by Andy O’Brien,
the Project Manager for the EDSC
inspection. This Plan included the
Project Structure and Approach, the
Stakeholders and their Responsibilities, the Project Safety Management
Strategy, the Scope of Work, Budgets, Risks, Programme etc.
The Scope of Work for the visit included power washing of the dams
and all vegetation growing along the
dam side walls were removed. The
communications systems were upgraded and all dam operation tasks
have been fully reviewed. New
handrails and access gates were
erected and a large volume of painting works were completed to improve the appearance of the stations
before the inspections.
The format of the inspections was
agreed in advance and normally
they begin with presentations by
ESB staff on data recordings and
readings, task histories, improvement works completed and a review
of issues raised in previous inspections. The inspectors then go on
site to visually examine equipment,
structures and work practices. They
then formally witness recording and
communication activities and verify
that all communication systems are
working properly.
The EDSC were very happy with
their findings during their intensive
inspection. Gerhard M. Wedam the
Electrical-Mechanical Expert on the
EDSC quoted in his report that “A
tremendous amount of related repair, refurbishment, renewal and improvement has been and is still being
carried out. Maintenance and testing procedures are of high standards
and thoroughly in line with good
international practice. This overall
progress deserves highest appreciation for the whole team, considering
that many of the innovative ideas
had arisen from the station staff
upon encouragement by the responsible management”.
Turlough Hill and Liffey Stations
staff were delighted with the results
that confirmed that all was well at all
three stations. Supervising Engineer
John Hayes and Station Asset Manager Catherine Halpin (now Plant
Manager at Ardnacrusha) noted that
they were also very pleased with the
results of the EDSC inspection, which
they added were due to the huge efforts of Turlough Hill and Liffey Stations staff. The lessons learned from
the inspection were presented to all
of the Hydro Stations at a Forum
last October. Liffey Stations have
now set the bar very high in terms of
the standards expected by the other
Hydro locations as they face their
own 10 Yearly inspections in the
Eamonn Finnegan and Brendan McCallig both members of Mechanical Dept.
“
coming years.
The EDSC was,
however, only There are two
one of the high- 15MW Poulights of the year laphouca and
for the Liffey two 4MW genStations. There erators each
were also many at Golden Falls
other initiatives and Leixlip.
completed over
the year, which
included:
• Water Control Equipment A huge
amount of maintenance was carried
out by Staff, supported by Contactors, on crest gates, disperser valves,
water flow monitoring pipework etc.
These efforts helped to substantially
complete the maintenance due in
these areas
• Poulaphouca Penstock Painting
This was an extremely complex
project. The old paintwork which
included hazardous elements had
to be shot-blasted to remove them,
whilst at all times the utmost care
was taken to protect the surrounding environment. This required a
large scaffolding arrangement to be
erected and enclosed in a tent. The
spent shot then had to be painstakingly collected and taken from site
by a licensed waste disposal contractor. The penstocks then had to be
painted to a very precise specification to ensure that the finish will last
the next 20 years. This project was
also a tremendous success and was
completed without safety incident,
within programme and to budget
• Equipment Operational Checks
and Dam Safety Readings A huge
effort was put in by Operations Staff
and the Civil Works Department to
ensure that water control equipment
was tested as required and that the
required dam safety readings were
taken. These tasks will help ensure
that the dams and water control
equipment will indeed work as required when called upon in the severest of flood conditions.
• Crane Replacements The main
station crane in Poulaphouca was replaced as was the crane in the main
intake house. Much of the credit
here is due to Paraic Dooley who
managed this contract up to the time
of his appointment as Plant Manager
in Erne Stations.
• Electric Vehicles Liffey Stations
extended the complement of electric
vehicles during the year. Turlough
Hill had procured golf buggies in
2010 to transport staff in and out
of the cavern and Liffey Stations
further demonstrated staff commitment to sustainability through the
purchase of an electric van.
The Poulaphouca reservoir and
Liffey Stations have indeed had a
proud history. In addition to providing a marvellous outdoor amenity,
the reservoir and hydro-generation
stations continue to play a major
beneficial role in maintaining Ireland’s overall environmental wellbeing. Hydro-generation provides
electricity from a clean, renewable
source without producing any emissions. Little did the engineers who
built the stations in the 1930s realise
that they would be contributing to
ESB’s target to be a carbon-neutral
company by 2025.
2011 was a tremendous year for
staff in Turlough Hill and Liffey Stations Staff. Tom Moran, Plant Manager noted that “The extent of work
completed by staff during 2011 was
hugely challenging both in terms of
quantity and complexity. The fact
that our 2011 work programme was
completed successfully without a
Lost Time Incident for the first time
in our history makes this outcome
even more impressive. It is heartening for staff to get the recognition
for their excellent work from external bodies like the EDSC with their
report and the Generation Operations Safety Awards Team with their
presentation of a Merit Award to
our stations. Staff can be very proud
of their stations and I would like to
take this opportunity to once again
to extend my sincerest gratitude for
their efforts during 2011”.
EM will feature the other refurbishment work in Turlough Hill and
Leixlip at a future date. n
.
Andy O’Brien, Tech Services, Joe Jacob, CWS. Dept. and Paul Murphy, E&I Dept.,
discussing the handing back of Station Penstocks Site from the Painting Contractor
to the ESB as the project completed.
Above: Joe Jacob, FLM, Civil Works Dept., Tomás Waters, newly appointed Station Asset
Manager, Catherine Halpin, Station Asset Manager and recently appointed Plant Manager
to Ardnacrusha Station, Donal Crean, Production Manager, Andy O’Brien, Technical
Services, Paul Murphy, E&I Dept., and Tom Moran, Plant Manager reviewing the Project
Master plan prepared for the EDSC inspections.
30
Cork Harbour submarine cable
project successfully completed
Cable laying in the Cork Harbour
shipping channel.
One of the first 220kV XLPE
insulated submarine cable projects
in the world has been successfully completed in Cork Harbour.
Two new submarine cable circuits
have been installed, namely the
Aghada–Raffeen circuit, which is
made up of 3.3km of submarine
cable and 3.5km of underground
cable (completed in 2010), and the
Glanagow–Raffeen circuit, which
comprises 4.6km of submarine
cable, 7.4km of underground cable and a new 220kV GIS station
at Glanagow (completed in 2011).
The two circuits connect a total
of 876MW of generating capacity,
from ESB’s Aghada Generating
Station and the Bord Gáis Whitegate plant, to the transmission grid.
ESB International was responsible
for cable design, engineering and
route selection on the project.
Many challenges, from route selection stage to final testing, had
to be overcome to deliver this important project. Cable route selection involved consultation with key
stakeholders, including the Port of
Cork and local fishing interests.
Detailed hydrographical and geophysical surveys were carried out
and foreshore licences were obtained by EirGrid for the submarine cables. The submarine cables
for each circuit had to be produced
in single continuous lengths without joints. Following factory testing, the cables were transported to
Ireland for installation. Four cables
were laid for each circuit, including
a spare phase.
One particular challenge was that
the cables had to be laid in shallow conditions where water depths
were generally no more than six
metres at high tide. This meant
highly-customised cable-installation methods had to be developed,
taking into account cable-laying
vessel positioning, water depths,
tides, currents, available daylight
hours and foreshore licence conditions. Also, both submarine cable
routes involved crossings of deeper
channels over short distances, and
as the Glanagow–Raffeen circuit
crosses the main shipping channel,
this crossing had to be done while
maintaining ships’ access to the
port. Following the cable laying,
the cables were protected by embedding in the seabed to a depth of
one to two metres using high pressure water jetting.
The substations element of the
project involved the construction of a new 220kV GIS station
in Glanagow which consisted of
three feeder bays, one coupler bay
and a double busbar arrangement
with provision for three future
feeder bays.
The following ESB International
staff were involved in delivering
this important project: Robert Donaghy, Mark Byrne, Pat O’Rourke,
Robert Doyle and John Dillon of
HV Cables; Metin Amet, Tommy
Sheridan, Robert Scott and Donal
Walsh of Civil & Structural; Roisin
O’Donovan and Richard German
of Environmental; Bernie Mullins
of. HV Substations; Michael Toal
of Automation & Telecoms and Joe
Colleran of AMS Commissioning.
Thanks to the excellent cooperation between the project teams in
ESB International, ESB Networks
and EirGrid, this vital transmission
reinforcement project was successfully and safely delivered. n
ESBI Staff donation
ESBI and OMV/Petrom staff working on the Petro Brazi Power Plant project in Romania
collected much needed funds for the Sisters of Mercy. The sisters provide a lot of support
for the elderly, the sick and the needy in Bucharest. The donation will assist the Sisters
to distribute food to the needy and to keep the local call-in centre running. Pictured are
Damian Murray of ESB International with Sister Rose Carmel, Sisters of Charity, Romania.
Derrybrien Wind Farm
achieves EMS Certification
in record time
Certification to ISO14001 of
ESB Energy International’s (ESBEI)
Derrybrien Wind Farm operational
Environmental Management System
(EMS) was received in January 2012.
Rose Walsh of ESB Interntational’s
Environment Group began preparation of the necessary documentation
in order to achieve EMS certification
in October 2011. The EMS was then
implemented on site by Joe Knight
and Aidan Fagan of Wind Operations & Maintenance in November.
“Achieving certification in such a
short period of time is an excellent
achievement by all those involved,”
commented Tommy Bree, Manager,
Environment Group. The system
will be rolled out to all wind farms
during 2012, completing the third
party accredited certification of ESBEI’s operational wind farms. n
Recently retired, Jack Farrell, named as the
County Longford Person of the year for 2011
Jack Farrell was named as County Longford Person of the Year for 2011. Jack has a long
association with Lanesborough Generating Station going back to the early days of Unit 1. He
is a community activist all his life and is currently involved with Newtowncashel Tidy Towns
Committee. He is present Chairperson of the Newtowncashel branch of County Longford
Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability, and has been involved with the Branch
for over 30 years. He has also been involved with his Parish organisations, such as G A A,
Drama Group and the Pioneers Total Absence
Association. In earlier times he ran in the
Dublin City Marathon to raise funds for St.
Christopher’s Services, Longford. In 1990 he
was awarded ESB Community Spirit award in
Lanesborough.
Shore End Pull-in at Ringaskiddy.
220kV Cable on Vessel Turntable.
To mark the occasion the Lanesborough
Retired Staff Association made a presentation
to Jack in the Aubergine Restaurant Longford.
The photo shows Jack (left) accepting the
award from George Shedwell, Chairperson of
ESB Lanesborough Retired Staff.
31
Sustainability, Safety, Health & Wellbeing
Health&Habitat
Cook up a storm this
Valentine’s Day
Health & Habitat,
page 32
New year,
New wishes,
New hopes,
New year’s
resolutions......
Maybe we all need to step back
and reflect for a moment and think of
how we can improve our well-being
and our fitness levels. Improved well
-being results in a more positive, relaxed and focused individual, with
an improved capability to deal with
the stress and worries of everyday
life.
What better way to achieve this
than through the healing qualities of
water? Let swimming allow the water to wash away all the anxieties of
everyday life. Water has the ability
to accommodate all levels of fitness
and benefit without the strain endure
by other physical activities.
Benefits of swimming include the
following;
• Helps maintain blood pressure and
cholesterol.
• Enhances flexibility of joints and
physical fitness level.
• Ideal for people having difficulties
with land-based activities, as your
weight in water is reduced to 1/10
of actual weight.
NEW! FITNESS CLASS
TIMETABLE 2012
8 Pick up your copy of our
exciting new class timetable
from reception, or check
www.sportsco.ie
• Ideal for arthritis and back-pain sufferers and those who are pregnant.
• Regular swimming builds
endurance, muscle strength and
cardiovascular fitness.
• Has a soothing effect on mind,
as well as body, by regulating
breathing and stimulating
circulation.
SPORTSCO offers a 25-metre,
ozone-treated, state-of-the-art swimming pool. The facility is White Flag
accredited and offers a wide range of
swimming hours, classes and aqua
aerobics sessions.
Many SPORTSCO members regularly experience these benefits including testimonials from below:
“Swimming is the part of the
day set aside for me. No phones, no
emails, no distractions. It is a vital
part of my day, leaving me relaxed
and full of energy,” says SPORTSCO member Jack Meade.
Keep in shape, socialise, meet
new people or enjoy family time in
a relaxed atmosphere. Beginner or
advanced, you will always find a
welcome and an invite to a social or
training group.
“The swimmers in SPORTSCO
are from various clubs around the
city. Many compete in Masters Galas throughout the year. The coming
together of the swimmers from various backgrounds, shows the strong
bond which exists among the swimming community, as we encourage
each other to a greater level of fitness,” says SPORTSCO member
Paul Byrne.
Why not reward yourself at the
end of a swimming session and relax and recharge your energy in
the exclusive Leisure Suite incorporating sauna, steam room, spa pool
and heated loungers?
For more details on the swimming pool timetable, membership options and classes, please
contact 01-6687022 or visit our website on
www.sportsco.ie
Wellness courses
The next series of wellness courses begin the
week commencing Monday February 20th.
PILATES Introductory - Tuesdays at 12:20pm (45 min
class) and Wednesdays at 7:30pm (hour long class)
PILATES Intermediate - Tuesdays at 1:05pm (45 min
class) and Wednesdays at 6:30pm and 8:30pm (hour
long class)
YOGA Mixed - Mondays at 8:30pm and Thursdays at
12:45pm (hour long class)
WEIGHT MANAGEMENT - Tuesdays at 7:30pm (90 min
class)
TAI CHI Mixed - Mondays at 10am and Thursdays at
7:30pm (hour long class) The above courses are open to
both SPORTSCO members and non-members, please
book at reception.
Tennis courses also begin on 20 February, with classes at
7pm for beginners and 8pm for intermediate/advanced
level - classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Members with early
morning access only
Toning
and
strength
Cardio
Pool based
classes
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SPINNING
TURBOFIT
CIRCUITS
SPINNING
CIRCUITS
Brian
Warren
Warren
Brian
Warren
07:15 ~ 08:00
07:00 ~ 08:00
07:15 ~ 08:15
07:00 ~ 08:00
TURBOFIT
AQUA HEALTH
TURBOFIT
TURBOFIT
AQUA HEALTH
Ray
Warren
Warren
Warren
Warren
13:15 ~ 13:40
10:00 ~ 11:00
13:15 ~ 13:40
07:30 ~ 07:55
10:00 ~ 11:00
STABILITY
BALL
POWER STEP
POWER STEP
Keith
Erle
ACTIVE FOR TURBOFIT
LIFE
Warren
Josianne
17:45 ~ 18:30
17:30 ~ 18:30
Gym Staff 13:15 ~ 13:40
17:30 ~ 18:30
ESB Travelco returns to the 4 star Galway
Bay Hotel, Salthill. Arriving Sunday, 15
April and departing Friday, 20 April.
The stay includes:
• Hot punch reception on evening
of arrival.
• 5 nights accommodation & dinner,
Sunday to Thursday incl 5 breakfasts,
Monday to Friday incl.
• Social Old Time Dancing, Sunday &
Thursday nights; Bingo another night
& Table Quiz yet another night.
• Complimentary Tastings: Wine (Mon/
Wed); Irish Coffee (Thurs); Compli-
mentary coffee/tea throughout stay
• Complimentary Beauty Demonstration (Thurs); Complimentary Aqua
Aerobics; Classic Movies every night.
• Free use of Swimming Pool, Sauna,
Gym.
• Singalong with our own Shay & Breda
on one night at least.
• Transfer to & from Hotel/ Train
Station, Sunday and Friday.
PRICE for all this per person
sharing is €293
Coach tours to local attractions in the
Galway Region will be organised.
TONE ZONE
SPINNING
SCULPT
TEEN GYM
Heather
Keith
Gym Staff
James
Ray
18:00 ~ 18:50
18:30 ~ 19:30
18:15 ~ 19:15
17:45 ~ 18:30
16:30 ~ 17:30
KEEP FIT
SPINNING
ZUMBA
SPINNING
SPINNING
Warren
Gym Staff
Heather
Gym Staff Gym Staff
18:00 ~ 19:00
18:30 ~ 19:30
19:30 ~ 20:20
STEP
~
AERO
COMBAT
ZUMBA
TONING
STEP
Josianne
18:30 ~ 19:30
Keith
Heather
18:30 ~ 19:30
19:30 ~ 20:30
20:30 ~ 21:20
19:00 ~ 20:00
Josianne
AQUA
AEROBICS
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
Warren
SPINNING
BODY SCULPT
19:00 ~ 20:00
Gym Staff
Gym Staff
12:00 ~ 13:00
12:00 ~ 1.00
SPINNING
Sculpt’n
’Tone
Josianne
19.30 ~ 20:30
BIG NEWS:
ESB Travelco is arranging a 5 night
dinner, bed & breakfast in BELFAST
in September 2012, the centenary
year of the sinking of the TITANIC.
18:30
19:30
19:30 ~ 20:30
Payments should be made by 29 February
to Joe Weir, ESB Travelco, 27 Herbert Place,
Dublin 2, mobile 087 9295552, tel01
6325120, email [email protected]
10:00 ~ 11:00
ZUMBA
Brian
THE WEST’S AWAKE! RETURN to GALWAY
07:30 ~ 07:55
PLEASE NOTE
• Participants must obtain a card for each class at reception.
• Late arrivals will not be admitted once class has commenced.
• Cards are distributed on a first come, first served basis.
• A minimum of two people are required for a class to
commence.
• Classes and/or instructors subject to change.
• Please bring a towel and bottle of water to class.
• Minimum age to participate in classes is 16 years with the
exception of Teen Gym.
• Classes before 9am are exclusive to members with early
morning access.
St Patrick’s Day opening times:
Sat 17 March - 2pm to 6pm
Family swims on the hour Sunday March 18th - normal hours
Mon 19 March - 9am to 9pm, with classes as per timetable
32 health&habitat
A touch of Spice
Download the
Easy Food App for tasty
t
recipes and features tha
will help you to make a
delicious meal with the
ingredients in your fridge!
The Easy Food App is
available from iTunes.
TRINIDAD LAMB CURRY
WITH COCONUT RICE
Serves 4
Juice of 1 lime
2 small red chillies, deseeded
and finely chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 garlic cloves, crushed
A large handful of coriander
leaves, finely chopped
60ml vegetable oil
(or rapeseed oil)
1kg diced lamb (leg or shoulder)
1 large onion, finely chopped
5 large tomatoes, deseeded
and diced
350ml chicken stock
For the coconut rice:
500g basmati rice
240ml coconut milk
1 To make the marinade, add
two tablespoons of lime juice,
the red chillies, curry powder,
cumin, garlic, coriander and one
tablespoon of oil into a bowl. Stir
to combine.
2 Add the lamb and stir until well
combined. Cover the bowl with
clingfilm and place in the fridge
for at least two hours.
3 Heat the remaining two
QUICK BLOOD
ORANGE TART
Serves 6-8
tablespoons of oil in a large
saucepan over a medium heat.
Add the onion and cook for three
minutes, until soft.
4 Stir the lamb and marinade,
tomatoes and stock into the
saucepan and bring to the boil.
Then reduce the heat to low and
simmer, uncovered and stirring
occasionally, for 1½ hours until the
lamb is tender.
5 To cook the rice, place a saucepan
of water over a high heat and bring
to the boil. Add the coconut milk
to the water and then add the rice
and cook as per packet instructions.
Serve with the curry.
Fat: 49.5g
Sat. Fat: 22.6g
Carbs: 118.2g
Energy: 1260kcal
Protein: 83.3g
Sodium: 0.5g
Sugar: 8.1g
Fibre: 7.7g
SPICED SALMON WITH
PINEAPPLE SALSA
Serves 4
healthy eating
Ireland's number one fo
od magazI n e
For more recipes
see the latest
issue of Easy
Food on sale
now.
only
2
€ .90
21
105
INSIDE!
NEW WAyS WITh
LArDEr STAPLES
Quick
midweek
desserts
tried & tested
recipes
march 2012
Tangy Lime and
Strawberry Meringues
● classic irish dishes for st. patrick's day
● Mexican food made easy
● light and healthy dinners
budgeT-frIendly
family meals
SPECIAL DIETS
Healthy kids meals,
plus the nutritiona
l
benefits of spring
greens
neW! CuT ouT
and KeeP: The
collectable series
Home Economicsof
Helper features.
Follow the Junior
and Leaving Cert
syllabus with us
in
every issue
cored and cut into 1cm pieces
(you can also use tinned, once it is
in its own juices, not in syrup)
A large handful of fresh
coriander, roughly chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp olive oil
1 Add the red onion, chilli,
allspice, sugar and dried thyme
into a food processor or blender
and pulse until smooth.
2 Place the salmon in a bowl and
add the spice mixture. Turn the
salmon in the mixture to coat.
Cover with clingfilm and place in
the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
3 For the salsa; add the pineapple,
coriander and lime juice into a
bowl and stir together.
4 Heat the oil on a griddle pan over
a high heat. Add the salmon fillets
to the pan to cook for 3-4 minutes
on each side or until cooked to
your liking. Serve the salmon with
pineapple salsa.
Fat: 16.7g
Sat. Fat:3.2g
Carbs: 32.9g
Energy: 363kcal
Protein: 23.9g
Sodium: 0.07g
Sugar: 19.8g
Fibre: 44.9g
1 small red onion, chopped
1 green chilli, deseeded and
finely chopped
1 tbsp ground allspice
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp dried thyme leaves
4 salmon fillets, skinless
For the salsa:
500g fresh pineapple, peeled,
2 ready-rolled shortcrust
pastry sheets, just thawed
125ml orange juice
350ml cream
110g caster sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
200g sugar
480ml water
4 blood oranges, thinly
sliced
To serve:
Whipped cream
1 Preheat the oven to
170°C/fan 150˚C/gas
mark 3. Line the base of a
tart tin (22cm diameter x
4cm deep) with the pastry
sheet, making sure to
ease it into the sides. Trim
the edges and refrigerate
for 15 minutes.
2 Remove from the fridge,
cover with parchment
paper and fill with baking
beans or dried rice. Bake
blind for 10 minutes.
3 Remove from the oven
ESB Athletic Club
update – Olympic
countdown started
and remove the cooking
beans and paper. Return to the
oven for five minutes. Then set
aside to cool.
4 Reduce the heat of the oven
to 150°C/fan 130°C/gas mark
2. Combine the orange juice,
cream, caster sugar and eggs in
a bowl.
5 Pour into the tart base and
bake in the oven for 45-50
minutes or until just set.
Remove and set aside to cool.
6 To make the candied oranges,
heat the sugar and water over a
low heat and stir until the sugar
has dissolved.
7 Add the orange slices and
simmer gently for 8-10 minutes
until the orange slices are
slightly transparent. Set aside
to cool completely.
8 Arrange the slices on top of
the tart and serve with cream.
Fat: 7.5g
Sat. Fat: 3.7g
Carbs: 58g
Energy: 310kcal
Protein: 4.8g
Sodium: 0.08g
Sugar: 50.1g
Fibre: 2.2g
Happy New Year! Last year was
one of the most successful years in
recent times for the ESB AC, with
an increase in club membership and
race attendance seeing the Gents and
Ladies’ teams finish fourth and fifth
respectively in the BHAA League.
The club also won the Trinity Trophy for the first time in its history.
The trophy has since been engraved
and took pride of place at the club’s
Christmas lunch. ESB athletes current and retired attended the lunch,
which was a big success.
Looking forward to 2012, the club
aims to maintain and hopefully improve its current form and we are
actively recruiting new members (see
bottom of article for contact details).
The main deliverable and fundraiser for the club is the annual ESB
Beach Race, this takes place on
Sandymount Strand on Thursday
May 22nd and is run under BHAA
rules. This year’s beach race will be
the first run using chip timing. All
members of the club will be encouraged to assist with the hosting of the
race and will be trained how to operate the new chip timing system.
The biggest sporting event of the
year, however, will be the London
2012 Olympics. Electric Ireland is confirmed as a high profile, official sponsor
of Team Ireland for the games. Those
of you based in Head Office or Swift
Square will have noticed the Olympic
Countdown Clocks in both locations.
Keep an eye out for other themed information, including posters of Irish
Olympians in the Head Office restaurant. The ESB AC has volunteered to
assist Electric Ireland with any events
that occur during the year, we are
currently getting a list of ESB Olympians together so please contact us if
you know of anyone. Also note that
the Olympic Flame will visit Dublin
on Wednesday June 6th as part of the
London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.
Recent BHAA Results
• SDCC 2&4 miles XC Sat Jan 07,
2012: ESB Men 2nd in Grade B,
3rd in Grade C (full runner details
on website).
Next BHAA Races
• NCF Cross Country - five miles for
Men and two-and-a-half miles for
Ladies - Saturday February 4th.
• Garda Cross Country - 4 miles for
Men & 2 miles for Ladies - Saturday
February 18th.
• NUI AIB XC - Saturday March
3rd.
• Dublin Airport XC - Saturday
March 10th.
• NCF Flood Lite XC - Wednesday
March 21st. n
Further information: http://esbnet/athleticclub/; http://sharepoint/sites/Group/CIO/
COO/CM/CSM/SC/ESB_Athletic_Club/default.aspx; ESB AC c/o Matt Reid: 70-26671,
[email protected]
SPORTSCO
Graduation
ESB SPORTSCO General Manager Lorna
Brady recently graduated with a masters
degree in management from Trinity College
and the IMI. Her MSc course was the last
masters programme offered by TCD in
conjunction with the IMI.
health&habitat 33
Health Awareness for 2012
8 Your health is
important to us
HEALTH SERVICES
update
ESB
Health
Services
is committed to protecting
the health and wellbeing of
ESB Staff. As part of this
commitment we are continually
involved in programmes aimed
at increasing the awareness of
the health benefits associated
with a balanced diet, a good
exercise plan and a healthy
mind. Physical activity releases
endorphins – the ‘feel good’
hormones, so it can often help to
improve your mental wellbeing
and help you maintain a positive
mental attitude. Being physically
active lifts your mood, gives you
a sense of wellbeing and gives
you more energy. Also what we
eat has a major effect on our
general health both physically
and mentally. Your body is able
to fight stressful situations better
when you eat a healthy diet.
Liam Maher wins
golf trophy
Building resilience is about
developing
strengths
and
abilities to ‘bounce back’ from
challenges and setbacks that
life presents. A healthy mind
leads to a healthy body. Mind
power is immensely valuable.
By having a healthy mind, you
can channel your thoughts in
the positive direction to reach
the goals you set for yourself.
We all face difficult challenges
today, i.e. dealing with uncertainty
and change, facing and overcoming
career challenges, cultivating
new relationships and making
health and lifestyle decisions.
Accordingly, it’s worth taking time
out to ensure that we deal with
these challenges with a positive
and productive mind-set in order to
enhance the quality of our lives.
You have already received
your 2012 health and wellbeing
calendar, which provides some
useful tips to manage your
mental, physical and emotional
wellbeing and help build your
resilience. The calendar themes
will be supported by business
and local initiatives throughout
the coming year. ESB Health
Services will be releasing a suite
of health booklets in the coming
months. These booklets will
cover Understanding Cancer,
Cardiovascular Health, Travel
Health, A Guide to Back Care,
and Wellbeing – building your
mental, physical and emotional
resilience.
These
booklets
will be available on-line from
the ESB Health Services
Intranet site at http://esbnet/
sharedservices/health/default.
shtm or by contacting Health
Services on 01 7026261. n
Your Health is important to us.
For further information on the
seasonal Flu visit: http://esbnet/
sharedservices/health/medical_
cond/influenza.shtm. Your health is
important to us
SPORTSCO
raffle winner
John Finnegan was the winner of our
Member Appreciation Day draw in
December.
Second year apprentice Liam Maher being
presented with his trophy for winning the
mens 2011 singles at the Tipperary Golf and
Country Club at Dundrum House Hotel. Liam
is at present working with Robert Grimes at
Rosbrien Limerick.
Photo shows Club Captain Eugene O’Meara
presenting Liam with his prizes.
Tax relief on medical expenses
EAP
Noticeboard
Tax relief can be claimed in respect of
the cost of certain medical expenses
paid by you, for yourself and/or
(from 2007 onwards) on behalf of
any other person. You cannot claim
tax relief for any expenditure which
has been, or will be, reimbursed by
another body for example the MPF,
(or other Health Insurer), the HSE
or where a compensation is made or
will be made.
What medical expenses qualify
for relief?
• Doctors and consultants fees.
• Diagnostic procedures carried
out on the advice of a
practitioner.
• Drugs/medicines prescribed by a
doctor/dentist/consultant.
• Maintenance or treatment in a
hospital or approved nursing
home.
• Supply, maintenance or repair of
any medical, surgical, dental or
nursing appliance used on the
advice of a medical practitioner
for example:
- Glucometer Machine
- Hearing Aid
- Orthopaedic Bed/Chair
-Wheelchair/wheelchair lift (no
relief is due for alterations to
the building to facilitate a lift)
- Exercise Bicycle
-Computer (where necessary
to alleviate communication
problems of a severely
handicapped person
- False Eye
- Wigs
• Physiotherapy or similar
treatment (e.g. chiropractor,
osteopath, bonesetter) prescribed
by a practitioner.
• Orthoptic or similar treatment
prescribed by a practitioner
(Routine Ophthalmic Care - i.e.
Sight Testing, Spectacles, does
NOT qualify for tax relief).
• Speech and language therapy
carried out by an approved
Speech and Language Therapist
for a qualifying child.
• Transport by ambulance.
• Educational psychological
assessments carried out by an
approved Educational
Psychologist for a qualifying child.
• Certain items of expenditure in
respect of a child suffering from a
serious life threatening illness.
• Kidney patients’ expenses (up to a
maximum amount depending on
whether the patient uses hospital
dialysis, home dialysis or CAPD).
• Specialised dental treatment
(routine dental treatment does
NOT qualify for tax relief)
• In-Vitro fertilisation.
• Cost of gluten-free food for coeliacs.
• Cost of food products
manufactured specifically for
diabetics.
Relief given
Relief is granted at the standard
rate of tax for medical expenses
incurred during 2010. Relief at
the high rate is still available for
payments towards Nursing Homes.
How to claim
You can claim the tax relief in a
number of ways:
• Claiming online via Revenue’s
“PAYE Anytime service” on
www.revenue.ie.
• By completing Form Med 1 Health Expenses Claim for Tax
Relief and submitting it to your
local Revenue office
• If you use a Form 11 to make a
tax return and claim reliefs and
credits, the amount of the health
expenses claim may be entered
at Panel I on the Form 11
The
Employee
Assistance
Programme (EAP) is a confidential
service provided to ESB Staff and
Pensioners.
For further information on this or any related matter contact your local EAP Officer.
Put some medicine in your soup
Miriam
Mcdonald
NATURAL HEALTH
Have you every noticed that
during the colder months your
body craves soups, stews and
generally warmer foods? They
warm us up, make us feel better and are generally nourishing. Of course homemade
soups are best. You can buy
local and even if you puree the
cooked vegetables, they still
have more fibre and are more
nutritious than mass manufactured soups.
You can make those soups
even healthier by selecting
a range of spices and herbs,
that will not only add some
zest to your soup, but also
have medicinal properties to
keep you well throughout the
cold months.
Garlic, for example, is a
powerful antioxidant helping
to combat flus, viruses and
other respiratory ailments. It
helps prevent formation of
blood clots and is effective in
reducing high cholesterol and
high blood pressure. It has
also induced death of cancer
cells in tests on prostate and
colon cancer.
Another herb to consider
adding to your soups or stews
is Turmeric. Turmeric calms
the stomach and is anti-inflammatory. Like garlic it is
good for colds and flus and
helps with circulatory problems, preventing blood clots.
It is also anti-arthritic (relieves
arthritis and stiff joints) and
anti-carcinogenic.
If you really like it hot, how
about a little cayenne pepper. Similar to turmeric and
garlic, cayenne pepper is also
anti-bacterial and an antioxidant. It is a powerful blood
tonic, improving circulation,
lowering cholesterol and blood
pressure. Like turmeric it is
also effective in relieving joint
pain and helping with arthritis. And if that wasn’t enough
to make you take to cayenne,
many cultures view cayenne
pepper as a potent libido, increasing euphoric endorphins
in the blood stream!
And finally, good old black
pepper. Black pepper like
many of the spices above, is
good for the stomach and aids
digestion as it encourages the
flow of gastric juices. Similar
to the other spices it is an anti-
oxidant
and anti-bacterial, so can help in the treatment of colds and flus.
Spring can often be a time
when colds and flus abound –
Why not use the medicine in
your kitchen cupboard to fortify yourself, build your immunity, improve your blood flow,
your overall heart function and
general health. n
Miriam McDonald is a Nutritional
Consultant & Practitioner (CANNP).
For any queries on nutrition please
email her at miriam.mcdonald@
freshperceptions.com
34 health&habitat
Private Drivers’ your handbook to staying safe on the road is out now!
Private Drivers’
Handbooks
launched
grainne
coogan
safe driving
In the December 2011 /
January 2012 issue of EM, we
advised you that the Private
Drivers’ Handbook and
Road Safety Awareness DVD
would be with you in 2012.
The successful launch of both
took place on 26th January
in Head Office and there has
been a great response so far.
They will be distributed to
you at your workplace in the
coming weeks. ESB driving
policies are set out clearly
in the handbook as well as
useful driving advice and
there are strong messages for
all roadusers to take from the
DVD.
One clear policy in the
handbook is the use of
Daytime Running Lights, in
order to help further increase
visibility and reduce collisions.
All staff driving private
vehicles on ESB business
should switch on dipped
headlights while driving.
This policy is foremost in
my mind at the moment. I
find that, when I’m driving
during daylight hours, I have
to work much harder at
seeing vehicles with no lights
Private Drivers’
HanDbook
www.esb.ie
on, particularly if the weather
is dull, dank and dark – and
just in case you’re wondering,
I have my eyes tested yearly!
Even so it can be difficult to
see a vehicle with no lights
on until it is quite close,
especially if the car is a light
colour, e.g. grey, silver or
white. On a drizzly day on
a motorway, they can be like
ghosts suddenly appearing by
your side, allowing less time
to react in an emergency (in
such conditions the speed limit
is definitely NOT a target),
The purpose of Daytime
Running Lights (D.R.L.s) is
to increase the visibility of
the vehicle to all traffic. It is
estimated that up to 45% of
all accidents occur because
of perception errors i.e.
incorrectly judging a vehicle’s
speed or not seeing the other
vehicle soon enough.
High visibility colours
and reflective markings are
already used on fleet vehicles
and, where available, ESB
fleet vehicles purchased since
2007 have ‘auto-on parking/
side lights’ fitted as standard.
It’s not only D.R.L.s that
are on my mind now. These
days, as I venture out on my
short hops to bring the kids to
their activities locally, usually
at dusk or dark, I have taken
to counting the number of
cars/vehicles with a front light
Out now –
Private Drivers’
Handbook and
Road Safety
Awareness
DVD
completely out or partially out
(think what you like!!) – and
it averages about six vehicles
per kilometre travelled, a
frighteningly high figure. Of
course, this defective lighting
distorts your perception of
what is coming towards you.
There is an increased chance
of an incident due to the
possibility of mistaking these
vehicles for motorbikes.
This begs the question, do
these drivers realise their
lights are out, and do we
ourselves make sure to check
that our lights are working?
A quick check by a passenger
or a check of reflections
in a window during your
“60 second vehicle safety
check” is all it takes. It is a
few moments well spent,
especially now that there is a
possibility of penalty points
being introduced later this
year for driving with faulty
lighting.
“Failing to see another road
user in time (or at all) is a
contributing factor in 50% of
daytime collisions and 80%
of collisions at intersections”
Source: Office of the Director
of Traffic - “Lights on
Daytime” - July 2002
For more information email [email protected] or visit the Safe Driving
Website: http://esbnet/safedriving/.
At the launch are (l-r): Garda Derek Cloughley, Traffic Road
Safety Unit; Johnny Shine, Deputy Chief Executive and
Sponsor, Safe Driving Programme; Deirdre Sinnott, Health
and Safety Authority; Michael Brosnan, Road Safety Authority;
Sergeant Jim McAllister, Garda National Traffic Bureau and
Superintendent Con O’Donohoe, Garda National Traffic Bureau.
The
future
electricity
abroad
Ban Ki-moon’s agenda
MORE than one billion people
have no access to electricity
and three billion rely on wood
and coal for their subsistence,
UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon told delegates at the
World Future Energy Summit
in Abu Dhabi in January.
Calling the summit ‘the perfect platform to examine the
implications for the large-scale
adoption of renewable energy
and clean technologies in the
world’, Ban said that renewable
energy ‘is a key to bring about
global economic growth’.
“We need innovation to
meet the increasing world demand on energy through partnerships between the public
and private sectors on one
hand, and civic societies on the
other, because this will help
create economic opportunities,
protect the environment and
improve the living conditions
of the people,” he said.
Setting a target for the global
delegates to achieve, he added,
“Sustainabledevelopmentneeds
sustainable energy. Therefore,
there is a dire need to decrease
the gas emissions by 2050 by 50
per cent in the world.”
There were 25 renewable
energy projects featured at
the exhibition adjoining the
summit, with a combined
value of more than €3billion.
The Chinese takeaway
CHINESE premier Wen
Jiabao, who also attended
the summit in Abu Dhabi,
emphasised the Middle
East’s ‘strategic position’
for China.
“We cannot ignore the
unique status and role of
West Asia and North Africa,” Wen told delegates.
While in present circumstances his remarks clearly
refer to the region’s oil reserves, Wen also promised
to ‘work more closely with
other countries to enhance
green innovation’.
While China is by far the
world’s greatest emitter of
carbon, its emissions on a per
capita basis are less than onethird the per capita emissions
of the United States.
Although China continues
to rely principally on coalfired generation, the country
also has 200GW of hydroelectric power and 47GW of
wind power, Wen pointed
out, adding that last year the
Chinese government committed to increasing energy
efficiency by 16 per cent and
reducing carbon emissions by
17 per cent by 2015.
Mr Wen’s comments were
broadly welcomed, particularly for their specific targets.
Dr Kandeh Yumkella, secretary general of the UN Indus-
trial Development Organisation expressed his satisfaction
that China ‘gave numbers
that can be verified’.
Great Danes
The Danish government published proposals last month
that call for the country to
obtain all of its energy from
renewable sources by 2050.
Already the world leader in
wind power, with 20 per cent
of its power produced by
wind turbines, Denmark took
over the Presidency of the
European Union in January
and plans to use its six-month
tenure to advance climate
and energy issues.
Meanwhile, achieving its
own national targets will not
be easy. In 2010, coal-fired
plants represented 44 per cent
of Danish power generation,
rising to two-thirds when combined with other fossil fuels.
The government’s plan calls
for coal-fired power plants to
be phased out by 2030.
Minister for Climate and
Energy Martin Lidegaard
has said the proposal to
phase out fossil fuels represents an insurance policy
‘against the risk of the market in the next 10 years’.
He said, “I think this will
work out to be the best insurance Denmark has ever
had.” n
Pyjama Day 2012 launched!
Three children from Little
Oaks Crèche, together with
the Minister for Children,
Francis Fitzgerald, took part
in the in the Launch of National Pyjama Day 2012 in aid of
Irish Hospice Foundation.
The event which takes place
on the 23rd of March will see
children in day care and preschool facilities all over Ireland wearing their pajamas
on the day to help raise much
needed funds for the IHF.
National Pyjama Day is
now in its 9th year and has
so far raised over €1.5 million for children’s charities in
Ireland and organisers hope
to raise €350k this year for the
IHF ‘Children’s Hospice Home
Care’ programme which will
offer support to families who
are caring for seriously ill children in their own homes.
Frances Fitzgerald, Minister
for Children and Youth Affairs
said, “It gives me great pleasure to launch this exciting and
incredibly worthwhile fundraising event. I would like to
congratulate the newly formed
Early Childhood Ireland for
their initiative in running this
event and I hope that this year
will be no exception in terms
of the level of generous support
that Pyjama day achieves year
on year, I would encourage all
childcare facilities to take part
in this fantastic day and have
great fun in doing so!”. n
For more information see: www.irishmediawatch.com/?p=9350 or www.
earlychildhoodireland.ie/
Life
Is the future
green?
Electricity Abroad
Health & Habitat,
page 31
Health & Habitat,
page 34
Image in-box
35
New resolutions
for fitness
in 2012
a selection of your photography
4
2
1
3
6
5
7
1 ‘French Alps in September’ by Andrew O’Connell, ESBI Eng Solutions. 2 ‘Autumn Walk’ by Kevin Grace. 3 ‘Black Rhino, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania’ by Robert Scott, ESBI
Engineering. 4 ‘Mainhattan Frankfurt, am Main, Germany’ by Brian O’Mahony. 5 ‘Homeward Bound’ by Dermot Shiels. 6 ‘Mixed reactions at the wedding’ by Michael Buggy, ESBI Engineering Solutions. 7 ‘Pisa’ by Kevin Grace’.
By Kathleen Thorne
book review
Pereira Maintains
By Antonio Tabucchi
Published by Canongate
Translated from Italian by Patrick
Creagh
Price €9.50
It is 1938 and much of Europe is in turmoil. In Lisbon, a
man called Dr Pereira is a
journalist responsible for the
culture pages with an evening
newspaper called the Lisboa.
He works in isolation in a
dingy office, which is located
at a distance from the newspaper’s headquarters.
Pereira is a widower. He is
overweight and unhealthy
and has a passion for omelettes and lemonade. He
has few friends. In his apart-
ment, he regularly speaks
to his dead wife’s picture.
He tells her everything about
his daily life and in the absence of any real companionship he seems to draw
comfort from this.
Then out of the blue, he
phones a young man, Monteiro Rossi, who has written
an article on death in some
obscure magazine. Why
Pereira does this is not entirely clear, but he is a Catholic, has an obsession with
death and, furthermore, his
work requires the preparation in advance of obituaries
of important, but ageing,
European writers of the
time. Names like Bernanos,
Mauriac, Claudel and Lorca
crop up frequently.
Pereira meets young Rossi
and employs him to write
these obituaries. However,
Pereira is taking on much
more than he realises when
he does this. His uneventful
life is rattled out of the ordi-
nary into an arena of moral
and political problems.
He sticks with his decision
and its consequences until
the end – an ending which
seems at odds with the kind
of man we meet at the beginning of the novel.
Pereira Maintains is a
short novel but it encompasses an extraordinary
breath of experience from so
many perspectives. It gives
insights into the European
political scene of the late
1930s. It is insightful in
terms of personal psychology. Besides, it reads fluently
and easily. n
36 LIFE
Planning a spring break? - Check out our review on Formentera, Ibiza
Make it a good year for the roses!
Is it necessary to dig out a
dead hedge?
GERRY
DALY
gardening
8 Now is the time of
year to lay the
foundations for a really
good show of roses,
writes Gerry Daly.
More than many other
kinds of flowers and shrubs,
roses take a little extra effort but they also deliver so
much more than most garden
plants. Bush roses, or bedding
roses as they are also called,
flower from late June or early
July until late autumn and
it is not unusual to see some
bushes still in flower at the
end of the year.
The key point to remember
about rose bushes is that they
rose varieties are susceptible
to blackspot, but there are
various branded rose sprays
available at garden shops.
If you have not done any
feeding or disease control for
years, it is amazing how well
rose bushes can recover and
flower so much better! n
are expected to do a lot in
just a few months. If you are
thinking about planting rose
bushes this spring, do so without delay. They are fast growers and need good sunshine,
as much warmth and shelter
as possible and well-drained,
deep, open fertile soil.
Start with pruning. Rose
bushes can be pruned in
early winter, although this is
usually left until early spring.
Remove all damaged or weak
and spindly shoots to begin
with. This will leave about
three to seven or eight shoots
on a hybrid tea bush, which
has single large flowers, or
double that number on the
cluster-flowered kinds. Remove some of the old shoots
— the bark on older shoots
is rough and brown. The remainder are then shortened
back to about 20 or 30cm,
pruned just above a healthy
bud.
Feeding is vitally important. While most garden flowers and shrubs need little or
no feeding, roses need heavy
feeding. Use a balanced general fertiliser, such as 10-1020, or a special rose fertiliser.
Feeding should be carried
out early in March to give a
good early boost to growth,
using about two handfuls of
feed per bush well-scattered
over the root area. This can
be repeated in wet weather in
mid-July.
Weed control is essential
because fast-growing roses
cannot afford to waste en-
ergy competing with other
plants, and this is the time to
get it right. Remove all existing weeds and trim the lawn
edges if the bed is in grass.
Weed control by hand is best
for roses, with light hoeing
on a regular basis. Note that
manure and compost tends
to carry in weed seeds, so it
must be very mature to be
weed-free.
The main rose pests are
greenflies, but these can be
washed off or sprayed with
soap-spray. Rose blackspot
disease is very damaging,
causing blackening of the
leaves and severe leaf loss,
and requires treatment on
susceptible varieties as soon
as the leaves are a few centimetres long. Most bush
‘My hedge that joins with
the neighbours’ garden died
in the frost and we have only
now got round to thinking
about re-planting. My main
question is whether we must
take out the roots of the old
hedge. He feels that the roots
could cause a rot to set in on
the new plants.’
There is a very small possibility of rotting roots supporting a soil fungus called
honey fungus. While honey fungus can later migrate
into nearby hedging plants,
this is not all that common,
especially if the new plants
are healthy and vigorous.
On the other hand, it is
much less trouble to just
cut away the tops and plant
between the stumps and
take the very slight risk.
Travel to Formentera: One of Europe’s best kept secrets
TONY
CLAYTON-LEA
TRAVEL
Most of us are aware of Ibiza
– it lies south of Majorca and
is, unjustifiably, regarded by
some as an island for young
people to let their hair down
during the summer holidays.
But what of Formentera?
Where exactly, I hear you
ask, is that place?
Well, Formentera is the
smallest of the Balearic
Islands, situated a mere
30-minute ferry trip
away from Ibiza Town.
Formentera is also
one of Europe’s best
kept secrets – close
enough to all that
happens on Ibiza to
make it interesting, but
small and self-contained enough to have
an identity and character
all of its own. It is a compact
island, 19km end to end, with
a population of just over
10,000 people who are more
than willing to let Ibiza take
the lion’s share of tourists and
throbbing nightlife. No airport
and a lack of large-scale
holiday accommodation
ensure that you visit Formentera very much on its own
terms.
Essentially, people come
here to wind down: if you’re of
a mind, you could spend a
week living it up on Ibiza and a
week here keeping
it nice and quiet. Quiet is what
Formentera really does best.
As you stroll through the towns
and villages, you’ll understand
why the island was a popular
place of refuge in the 1960s
for members of the counter
culture – and a few hippies still
remain. It hass this atmosphere of laidback casualness
that is so appealing. Over on
Ibiza, you might feel the need
to make some noise; here, you
can just drift from café to bar
to beach to coffee-house to
restaurant to beach to bar and
still have time to read that
book you promised yourself
you’d finish by Christmas.
If you’re looking for some
nightlife, of course, then you’ll
certainly find it. North of La
Savina, on Platja de Illetes,
you’ll discover a bit of a bash
going on. Similarly, in the island’s main town, Sant Francesc, you’ll occasionally come
across a bustling bar and café
hiding in what is in essence a
sleepy village. In particular,
search out the town’s central
plaza, located beside a beautiful, whitewashed 18th-century
church, for a hive of bars and
cafés that all just ache to be
sat in.
But, really, people don’t come
here for the noise of bottles
clanking together. Formentera
is a no hustle, no bustle place.
Time to switch off and watch
the world go by? We think so.
n
Try begonias in pots
Tuberous and pendulous
begonias are great value
in the summer months,
grown in the open ground
but even more so in pots,
window boxes and other
containers. They can be
placed on a window sill,
flight of steps or on the
ground of a paved area for
summer decoration and
they flower non-stop to
late autumn.
The tubers can be started
off in March or early April
in trays or small pots of
moist compost. The sprouting plants can be moved
into bigger pots and eventually moved outdoors
into their final container
at the end of May or early
June.
Make sure to water well
and give a dilute feed with
every second watering.
They are big feeders and
respond well to heavy
feeding. They flower
best in sunshine but take
some light shade
or part-day
shade. Colours are hot
shades
of
red, yellow,
pink, apricot
and orange.
FACT FILE:
HOW TO GET THERE
Aer Lingus flies direct from
Dublin to Ibiza; from Ibiza
Town, you can get frequent
ferries to Formentera.
Where To Stay: Gecko
Beach Club is Formentera’s
first boutique hotel and is
just as swanky as anything
you’ll see on Ibiza. Rooms
from €230. Visit geckobeachclub.com.
For a more reasonable
option, try Roca Bella, a
budget hotel for those who
want to stay in the island’s
main town of Sant Francesc.
Rooms from €60.
Where To Eat: Café de la
Luna, Puerto Deportivo, La
Savina, is a harbour-side
restaurant from which
vantage point you can lazily
watch the yachts drift by as
you have dinner with a glass
of wine (or two – it’s allowed
because you’re on holiday!).
LIFE 37
Getting to the bottom of a taxing situation!
Clearing up the confusion
BARRY
McCall
PERSONAL FINANCE
Many older people received quite a shock at the end of
last year when they opened a letter from the Revenue Commissioners informing them that they
may have underpaid tax if they
hadn’t declared that they were
in receipt of both a state pension
and an occupational pension.
The fact that the vast majority
of those who received the letters were fully tax compliant and
had absolutely nothing to worry
about did little to dispel the fear
and near panic that gripped a
very vulnerable group.
The difficulty and resulting
confusion lie in the long-held but
mistaken belief that state pensions are exempt from tax and
in the different ways in which
state and occupational pensions
are treated for the Universal
Social Charge (USC).
With very few exceptions
all, income is subject to tax.
The State Contributory Pension is €230.30 a week at
present with an additional
€206.30 available for a qualifying adult. This would bring
the pension to €436.60 for
most married couples or civil
partners. This is €22,703.20
per annum – well within the
€36,000 tax exemption limit
available to couples. Hence the
widespread belief that the state
pension is tax-exempt.
However, if one of the
partners in that couple also
had an occupational pension
of €30,000 they would find
themselves liable to tax. In this
instance, tax would be payable at the 20% rate for the
€16,703.20 income which is
over and above the threshold.
This would be €3,340.64 per
annum and would normally
be deducted under the PAYE
system by the occupational
pension provider.
However, if the pension provider has not been informed
by Revenue of the necessity to
deduct this tax they will not do
so. This can occur if the Revenue had not been informed
of the couple’s state pension
income.
The issue gets a little more
complex after that due to the
introduction of the USC. While
the state pension is exempt
from the USC and both state
and occupational pensions are
exempt from both PRSI, occupational pensions are actually
liable to the USC. Once you
have an income of more than
€10,036 a year you are liable to
pay it on the whole of your income – state pension excluded
of course.
Thus, in our earlier example
the USC would be payable on
the full €30,000 occupational
pension at the rate of 2% for
the first €10,036, 4% for the
amount between €10,036 and
€16,016, and 7% for everything above €16,016. However, the 7% rate is abolished for
people over the age of 70 and
medical card holders and they
pay the 4% rate for all income
above €10,036.
In the case of our example
where our notional couple
are both under 70 and do not
qualify for a medical card, the
total USC liability would be
€1,418.80 (€200.72 + €239.20
+ €978.88). This would give a
total liability between income
tax and USC of €4,759.44 or
€91.52 per week.
This is a considerable amount
of money and can quickly
build up over time if it is not
paid for any reason. The good
news is that a huge majority of
pensioners are paying their full
tax and USC liabilities on time
and in full so have nothing to
worry about.
Anyone who is still concerned about
their tax situation should contact
their occupational pension provider
or the Revenue Commissioners
(www.revenue.ie) for advice and
assistance. n
Renault Wind Gordini - 1.2 TCE 100bhp.
dave
walshe
motoring
Gordini. A name to conjure up images of cars tearing
all around Europe and winning Rallies. It’s as synonymous with motoring as Chanel
is to perfume. Of late, Renault
has started reusing the name
again on their cars, this time
the Wind. A two seater of particularly distinctive looks, it
screams “look at me”. I on the
other hand had to drive it.
This car really lives up to its
name. Wind noise with the roof
up or down. “Yes Baldrick”,
it’s a two seater convertible
with a very clever, flip-folding,
opening roof. It flips up and
over without bending in the
same style as the Ferrari 575M
Superamerica - very good
company. The Ferrari stills
beats it in flipping time taking
10s v 12s for the Wind, that’s
Ferrari for you, so competitive. Renault will be pleased
to be compared to Ferrari and
on that score the Wind’s alloy wheels are as appealing as
anything on a Ferrari.
The market for this car is
undeniably young and trendy,
that’s not ageist or, fashionist
just factist. In traditional Gordini Blue with the two trademark white strips and white
mirrors, it can only be driven
by those who can carry it off.
It is a cool car alright but I’m
afraid the delights are visual
for the observers whereas the
driver gets to know its flaws
all too soon.
www.renault.ie
is still surprisingly
large so shopping trips are not
threatened at all.
What Renault
has tapped into here
is a car that has looks
for the style conscious buyer.
Someone who likes to express
themselves individualistically
and is comfortable with that. It
is an ideal accessory for those
fashion minded individuals
who need a form of transport
full stop and not car aficionados who are style conscious
second.
I think Renault has designed
a car around a roof idea, for a
niche customer. As a target
market exercise Renault have
hit the bullseye.
However, like a bullseye,
the target market is small, as
will be the number of buyers
of the Wind. n
The driving dynamics
of this car are not in keeping with the Gordini tradition. Sporting it ain’t and
the car never really feels entirely composed being driven
hard or just tipping along. I
can easily get boy/girl racer
wheelspin just when I don’t
want it. On twisty roads its
ride is only adequate.
Roof down the car loses it’s
rigidity a bit too much and
I tended to ease off, which
in any convertible is usually
my style of driving. Nice and
slow and enjoy the trip. That
trip won’t be too long as the
tank only takes 40 litres. With
the roof folded the boot space
RRP = €26,99
St. Patrick’s CU Monthly Loan Repayment per €1,000. Rate = 6.5%
Tel: 01 632 5100 or 01 632 5125
3 Years = €30.64
4 Years = €23.71
5 Years = €19.56
Manufacturers Fuel Consumption Figs.:
Urban 6.4l/100km ; Extra Urban 5.2l/100km
New Car Assessment Programme Rating *****
[email protected]
www.euroncap.com
Want to save €1,000s
on your personal debt?
Credit card debt
If you owe €10,000 on your
credit card and are only making
the minimum repayment every
month, it will take you 20 years
to clear the balance and cost
€9,000 in interest.
If you take out a loan to clear
the balance from St. Patrick’s
Credit Union over three years
at €306.49 per month, it would
cost €1,033 in interest – a saving
of €7,967 to be made.
SIMON
DUNNE
St. Patrick’s credit
Union (ESB Staff) Ltd.
Are you paying 11% p.a. on a
personal loan with your bank?
Are you paying 18% p.a. on
your credit card bill?
If the answer is yes to any of
the above questions, then clear
these expensive personal debts
with a loan from St. Patrick’s
Credit Union at just 6.5% p.a.
and save yourself €1,000s in
the process.
Personal loans
The table below shows the repayments on a €20,000 loan
over five years with Bank of
Ireland, compared with the
same loan from St. Patrick’s
Credit Union.
As you can see there is a
saving of €2,523 to be made
by choosing St. Patrick’s Credit Union.
Name
Bank of Ireland
St. Patrick’s CU
Please also note the following:
• Fees and charges
Banks sometimes levy fees
and charges for the ‘privilege’
of taking out a loan with them,
such as a Documentation Fee
and Completion Fee which are
typically around €70 each – St
Patrick’s Credit Union does not.
• Loan protection insurance
Banks do not offer FREE
loan protection insurance
for personal loans i.e. insurance which will clear the
loan in the event of death - St
Patrick’s Credit Union does.
If you want to save €1,000s, then
please see our website www.
stpatrickscu.ie for further details on
how to apply for a loan or contact a
member of staff on 01-6325100.
Interest
Rate
Monthly
repayment
Cost of credit
11.4
€433.37*
€6,002.20
6.5
€391.32
€3,479.20
*source- www.bankofireland.com
St Patrick’s Credit Union
Competition
Win an iPod nano!!
To be in with a chance of winning please answer the following question
and text your answer to 087 9858238 in the following format:
“CUCOMP followed by your answer (i.e. a, b or c) and your name”
How much cheaper is a €20,000 loan from St. Patrick’s Credit Union
than from Bank of Ireland?
a) €1,000 b) €2,000 c) €2,523
Important Only one entry per person, no mail entries acceptable, and
the closing date is the 30th March 2012.
Last issue’s winner was Bernie Lennon, working in Athlone.
Congratulations Bernie and your iPod nano is on the way out to you.
38
have fun
competitions
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more fun if you win an amazing prize....
See all available prizes below. Enter today!
Win a 2 nights B&B plus 1 evening meal
for 2 at the Silver Tassie Hotel
This Select Hotel in Donegal, is
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Select Hotels of Ireland is
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EM
Comp 1
Red wine for your Valentine….
independent Irish Hotels,
all with a strong tradition
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Hotels are based across the
island of Ireland.
To be in with your chance
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a) Pick Hotels
b) Select Hotels
c) Choose Hotels
Produced in the Languedoc region of
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celebrating St Valentine’s Day with
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EM
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Cuvée des Fées is produced in ... ?
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b) Languedoc
c) Laois
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Win 1 of 3 copies of
Even Better than
the Real Thing?
by Martina Reilly
figure out how to
make things right,
and her mysterious
neighbour Larry
is just the person to
help. Will Eve get her
painting back, or is
Larry just another fake?
Eve’s also about to find
out that in love, like art,
the trick is knowing when
it’s the real deal.
Eve Cole is good
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Even Better than the Real
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a) Martina Reilly
b) Martina Devlin
c) Martina Cole
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The Killarney Plaza Hotel & Spa
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What is the name of the Spa at
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LIFE 39
crossword: Win shopping vouchers worth €200 and €100 with our crossword competition
Crossword 1
€100
to be won! Across
1. Source of perks for politicians. (5,5)
6. Unpleasant layer at the top of a liquid.
(4)
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11. Army unit. (9)
12. Musician. (7)
15. Profundity. (5)
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18. Poems. (4)
19. Gather together. (5)
21. Party. (7)
23. Oriental sleeping mat. (5)
24. Run away. (4)
25. Cereal crop. (4)
26. Part of a cow. (5)
28. Kidnap victim. (7)
33. Hopeless. (9)
34. Get sick. (5)
35. Twenty-four hour periods. (4)
36. Media mogul. (5,5)
Crossword 2
€200
Entries for the crossword competitions to be received by March
13th marked ‘Crossword Competitions’, EM, ESB Corporate
Communications, 27 Lr. Fitzwilliam St., Dublin 2.
classifieds
COSTA del Sol, SPAIN,
Benalmadena Costa apartment to
rent
3 Bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment
for rent. Sleeps 5. Shared swimming
pool, across from the beach. Flat
screen Sat. TV. Towels & linen
supplied. Malaga airport 20 mins
drive. For further info. please
telephone 087 2303462 or e-mail
[email protected].
Ski Apt to rent Bansko, Bulgaria
2 Bed apt for rent. Close to
restaurants, shops and bars. Private
use of sauna and jacuzzi. Shuttle
service to ski lift. Great offers from
€150 pw. Airport pickup available.
Contact Adrian 087 2324411.
Cottage for rent in Sligo
Self Catering Holiday Cottage, Co.
Sligo for rent. Very well equipped,
Across
1. Thief who operates in
crowds. (10)
to be
6. Sounded a bell. (4)
won!
10. The Jack in a deck of
cards. (5)
11. Fishing port in Co. Galway. (9)
12. Disciple of Jesus. (7)
15. Confidential assistants. (5)
17. Thin. (4)
18. Mats. (4)
19. Provide food. (5)
21. Town in Waterford famous for its
round tower. (7)
23. Implore. (5)
24. Molten rock from a volcano. (4)
25. Movie legend James. (4)
26. Card game. (5)
28. A line that just touches a circle. (7)
33. Group that used to force people to
join the Royal Navy. (5-4)
34. Heedful. (5)
35. Travel on horseback. (4)
36. An essential democratic right. (4,6)
Down
1. Stare. (4)
2. Humiliation. (9)
3. Bumpkin. (5)
4. Vestments. (5)
5. Greek letter, or a tiny bit. (4)
7. Bird sound. (5)
8. English city. (10)
9. Ladies’ holdall. (7)
13. Irritate. (4)
14. Sully. (7)
16. Perplexed. (10)
20. Crocodile-like reptile. (9)
21. Expressed contempt. (7)
22. Troubles. (4)
27. Covered with fine dirt. (5)
29. Unfastens. (5)
30. Pulsate. (5)
31. Young salmon. (4)
32. Avoid, ‘send to Coventry’. (4)
Down
1. Freshwater fish. (4)
2. ‘Bubbly’. (9)
3. Removes the skin of a fruit. (5)
4. A reef is made of this. (5)
5. The Orient. (4)
7. In front. (5)
8. Ocean current near our West coast.
(4,6)
9. Natural ability that helps one stay on
one’s feet. (7)
13. Excursion. (4)
14. What heats the water in an electric
kettle. (7)
16. Thin, crinkled, coloured substance.
(5,5)
20. The cost of a rail ticket. (5,4)
21. Where one lives. (7)
22. Bay-like horse colour. (4)
27. Work some dough. (5)
29. Measure of turn. (5)
30. Clutch. (5)
31. Market. (4)
32. Net. (4)
Interesting facts about
our solar system that
you might not have
known!
Light from the sun reaches
the earth in 8 minutes.
71% of the earth’s surface
is covered in water and
this helps to keep it cool.
Methane is the gas that
makes up most of the
atmosphere on Neptune
and gives it a dark blue
colour.
The winds on Jupiter can
travel up to 400mph and
they swirl around the
planet, giving it coloured
bands and stripes.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/
CROSSWORD 1
Across 1. Restaurant 7. Uses
CROSSWORD 2
Across 1. Job 3. Silent Night
10. Coral 11. Pantomime
12. Rampant 15. Prong 17. Rose
18. Sled 19. Refer 21. Service
23. Reset 24. Trod 25. Abel
26. Leapt 28. Season’s Greetings
34. Sighs 35. Rats 36. Ugly Sister
8. Nectar 9. Nativity 10. Label
11. Divan 13. Split 15. Eternal
16. Orderly 20. Holly 21. Spoil
23. Cheer 24. Mechanic 25. Second
26. Banana split 27. Sly
Down
1. Jingle Bells 2. Backbone 3. Small
4. Ennoble 5. Naiad 6. Grieve 7. Toy
12. New Year’s Day 13. Smash
14. Tarry 17. Ravenous 18. Flat cap
19. Toucan 22. Learn 23. Crest
24. Mob
1. Rice 2. Streamers 3. All up
4. Ripon 5. Nine 7. Sligo 8. Sleigh ride
9. Compere 13. Axle 14. Travels
16. Astrologer 20. Fortnight
21. Statute 22. Cana 27. Alert
29. Essay 30. Sushi 31. Snug
32. Tsar. Rat
Down
EM Competition Winners
Disclaimer: Classifieds are placed by individuals, the publisher
does not accept responsibility for errors or omissions.
sleeps 5, lovely quiet location yet
close to amenities. Short or long
breaks catered for – Check out www.
derroonfarmhouse.com for full
details. Please quote ESB for
discount. Tel: 086 2051279.
Florida holiday home rental
Escape the cold and snow at home
and rent a holiday home in beautiful
Naples Florida, available to April
2012. A beautiful 3 bed 2 ½ bath
detached villa located in the
prestigious community of Windstar
on Naples bay just minutes from
Olde Naples. 2-storey fully
furnished with pool and views of
Lake and golf course. Rental
includes golf membership to the
Tom Fazio 18 hole course on the
bay, the waterfront Clubhouse has a
bar and dining views overlooking the
bay with a private beach club on
Kdywaydin Island with daily shuttles
from a private dock, tennis also
available. Contact Kara Heaslip +1
239 821 9056 KaraHeaslip@aol.
com
South of France (Carnon)
2 Bed, 1st Floor Apt /Sea View
Balcony. Close to shops, bars,
beach, public transport, water
sports, golf, touring etc. All year
round/Private parking. Pick-up can
be arranged from Montpelier (5km)
or Carcassonne Airports. Contact:
Tel: 0033 46786 1173 or
Email:[email protected]
Marbella East – Apt to rent
South-facing luxury 3-bed/2 bath
(sleeps 5) in quiet area with sea and
mountain views, swimming pool. 4
min. walk to Marbella’s Blue Flag
beach. 5 min. drive to Marbella
central. Adj. to golf courses, tennis
club, shopping centres and a wide
variety of beaches and restaurants.
Contact Mary @ 01 2761444/087
2071742 or odwyer.mary@gmail.
com
Lanzarote Canaries sunshine all
year
Now that Ryanair and Aer Lingus are
both flying to Lanzarote
Playa Blanca – Lovely 2 bed
bungalow with pool on site, tennis,
beach and shops nearby. €300 per
week Tel. Brian on 0876299752
Villa to rent Torrevieja, Spain
Private villa with pool, sleeps up to
7. Close to restaurants, shops and
bars. English TV also AC in all
rooms. Airport pick up available.
From €300pw. Contact Adrian 087
2324411.
EM COMPETITION 1
Lesley Murphy
(Winner receives a year’s membership at
SPORTSCO)
EM COMPETITION 7
Mary Carroll
(Winner receives an Arthur Christmas Activity
Pack)
EM COMPETITION 2
Caitlin Neary
(Winner received a €100 Voucher for
STYLE-TONIC.COM)
EM COMPETITION 8
Shay Keogh
Sean Brophy
Gabriel Cannon
Bridie Kelly
(Each of the four winners receives a pair of
tickets to the Glen Miller Concert)
EM COMPETITION 3
Georgina Orr
Jackie Power
Eoghan Judge
(Each of the three winners receives a copy of the
SPEKS)
EM COMPETITION 4
Olive Halpin
(The winner receives €100 worth of Garrendenny
Lane goodies)
EM COMPETITION 5
Denis O’Mahoney
Niall Dineen
Carmel O’Connor
(Each of the three winners receives a copy of the
CD And So The Story Goes)
EM COMPETITION 6
Richard Sheehan
(Winner receives a designer lamp from Aoki
Interiors)
EM COMPETITION 9
Marie Lawlor
Tina Connolly
Liam Swaine
Philip Higgins
(Each of the four winners receives a pair of
tickets to the Great American Songbook
Concert)
CROSSWORDS €200 SHOPPING
VOUCHER
Jim Cross
Eileen Higgins
Kate Long
CROSSWORDS €100 SHOPPING
VOUCHER
Philip Connolly
Mary Gough
M. Keogh
40 The Last Word
A time for
good health
8 The simplest things can improve our overall health and wellbeing,
Dr. Mark Rowe tells EM.
T
he idea of a newsletter produced by doctors with
the aim of keeping people out
of the doctor’s surgery may appear a little unusual but it is a
reality in the form of The Good
Health Times. Produced by Dr.
Mark Rowe and his colleagues
at the Waterford Health Park
the newsletter offers accessible,
user-friendly information to em-
ployees about their own health
and that of their families.
“The idea behind it is to bridge
the gap between what the healthcare system knows and what the
average person knows,” Dr. Rowe
explains. “Health is a lot more
than about being sick. We use a
term called health-IQ which covers the combination of our knowledge, awareness and attitudes in
relation to our health. The aim of
The Good Health Times is to improve our health-IQ.”
He points to a poor attitude as
having particular implications
for men’s health. “Irish men tend
to die five to six years sooner
than Irish women and they are
likely to live for 10 to 15 years
with a chronic illness before that.
Men seem to think that going to
a doctor is a sign of weakness.
Research shows that the average
male will endure the painful and
obvious symptoms of bowel cancer for six months before seeing a
doctor. Bowel cancer is a curable
disease if caught early enough
but allowing symptoms to persist
like this can mean it is not. These
attitudes are costing men their
health and their lives. We want
to challenge these attitudes.”
Awareness and knowledge
are also vitally important. “Just
because we aren’t sick doesn’t
mean we are well. We should all
be aware of our blood pressure
and cholesterol levels. We should
know about the benefits of exercise, the pros and cons of alcohol consumptions, the dangers
of smoking, and the benefits of
a healthy diet. That’s what The
Good Health Times is all about –
we are challenging attitudes and
giving people the knowledge to
make informed decisions about
their own health.”
And the information it offers
isn’t necessarily what you’d expect from a medical publication.
It covers areas like the benefits of
eating blueberries and tomatoes,
how to stick to new year’s resolutions, the dangers of passive
smoking, and the reasons why
garlic is good for you.
“I am very passionate about
trying to improve community
health and I firmly believe that
health education is the key to
this. If people have the right
information they can make the
right choices,” Dr. Rowe argues.
“I’d much prefer to see people
taking control of their health and
being well than to treat them.”
One of his key points is that it
is never too late to improve your
health. “We are all capable of
doing some quite simple things
to improve our health and wellbeing,” he claims. “Things like
drinking plenty of water and
taking more exercise. I’ve been
working as a doctor for 20 years
and I am
glad to see
that there is
We should know
now a much
about the benefits
greater
of exercise, the
understandpros and cons of
ing of the
alcohol consumpconcept of
tions, the dangers
wellbeing.
of smoking, and
This covers
the benefits of a
people’s
healthy diet
physical
and psychological health.”
He believes that the importance of emotional intelligence
is underestimated. “Emotional
intelligence is another form of
IQ and it is perhaps more important and relevant. It is about selfawareness, how we understand
ourselves and how we relate to
other people. We all have stress
and how we destress is directly
related to our emotional intelligence. Our emotional wellbeing
is hugely important. When you
ask why people are happy the
research shows that 50% of happiness is genetic, another 10%
is our life experience, and the
remaining 40% is what we do
every day. There are a number
of things that we can do to influence that 40% and contribute to
greater happiness which in turn
impacts positively on our physical health.”
Among these things are acts of
kindness and cultivating our own
feelings of gratitude. He also believes good organisation of our
lives can contribute positively to
wellbeing. “Many of us are too
busy being busy. If we can organise our time better we can make
time for the other things that
make us happier and contribute
“
to our health. It also allows us
time to set goals – goal setting is
very important as it can help us
gain the clarity needed to make
improvements to our lives.”
While his message may have
seemed New Age or slightly
wacky in the last century it is
now coming into the mainstream.
“Progressive employers like ESB
are committed to the overall
wellbeing of their staff and this
is very welcome”, he says. “I
deliver seminars to groups and
organisations and I have given
some to ESB staff. I am on a bit
of a crusade. I believe there is
huge untapped potential in promoting people’s health and wellbeing through knowledge and
awareness. Health budgets have
been traditionally about firefighting and curing illness. But
every euro spent on prevention
can save tens of euros later on.
There needs to be a sea change
and more joined up thinking. We
need to go beyond healthcare
and promote wellbeing through
sport, education and so on. This
is so important for the future of
our children. I’d love to see the
concept of Healthy Schools being
developed; a bit like the Green
Schools programme.” n
For further information about The Good Health
Times log on to www.thegoodhealthtimes.com.

the Feb/March 2012 edition of EM Would you prefer

Transcription

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