The ESB is set to ramp up electricity generation at its giant coal-burning facility in Moneypoint, Co Clare, this winter, despite rigorous controls being imposed on farming and other industries to meet stringent carbon-emissions targets.

The Irish Farmers Journal can reveal that increased electricity generation is planned at Moneypoint this autumn and winter in order to meet increased power demand and to compensate for the temporary loss of two gas-powered plants to the national grid.

However, the increased use of the Co Clare power plant, which has been among the country’s largest generators of CO2 emissions since the 1980s, comes as farmers brace themselves for strict controls on cattle numbers under new climate change measures.

The Climate Change Advisory Council is due to deliver carbon budgets for greenhouse gas emissions this autumn in line with the provisions of the legislation as amended. It will be a matter for Government then to determine how these carbon budgets are allocated to the relevant sectors such as agriculture, transport and energy.

There are growing fears in farming circles that the council’s recommendations, allied to the regulations imposed under the Nitrates Action Programme, will effectively cap livestock numbers, and could even force a reduction in the national herd.

“Moneypoint has been called on to generate by the system operator (Eirgrid ) more frequently in 2021 due to the non-availability of two major third-party gas plants. It therefore has seen increased generation output in the year to date relative to 2020,” a spokesman for ESB told the Irish Farmers Journal.

The ESB admitted that the three power generation units at Moneypoint were offline from September 2018 to January 2019 for maintenance. The plant has been generally in a supporting role to gas and wind-generation for the last number of years.

While ESB insisted that the semi-state company still planned to cease electricity generation from coal at Moneypoint by 2025, the company spokesman said the current availability of the plant highlighted the benefits of “ensuring diversity of fuel source and security of supply if there is a disruption to availability of gas plant during periods of low wind generation”.

ESB declined to comment on the tonnage of coal imported this year for the Moneypoint plant, citing “commercial sensitivities”.

The renewed use of coal by ESB will anger commercial peat harvesters, who have seen their operations significantly curtailed as a consequence of climate change regulations.

Increased power generation at Moneypoint comes amid growing concerns that the country could experience electricity blackouts this winter.

The temporary loss of gas-powered stations in Whitegate, Co Cork, and Hartstown in Dublin has been exacerbated by growing electricity demand as the economy fully reopens, and increased usage by mega-energy sinks such as data centres.