Monday 7 April 2014

€1 billion for ESB Energy Infrastructure investment announced at EGA Spring Lecture in UCD

The EGA were this year honoured to have Minister Pat Rabbitte as Guest Speaker for our Annual Spring Lecture. Link to full speech here. I was delighted to be joined by UCD Vice President Professor Orla Feely to welcome the Minister to UCD.


Minister is welcomed by EGA President PJ Rudden and UCD Vice President Professor Orla Feely
During the lecture he announced publicly for the first time that the Government had just that day approved a €1billion capital investment programme for ESB to be spent on transmission and distribution electricity networks.
 
Minister delivers EGA Annual Spring Lecture

In addition to that announcement - carried that night by Engineers Ireland in their eJournal ahead of the national media! - the Minister gave a wide ranging Lecture on the improvement in the Irish economy and the energy challenges we currently face resulting from that improvement.
 
Kelley Cousins Engineers Ireland and Mary Anne Carrigan
Editor Engineers Ireland attend the EGA Event

'We need to keep a strong focus on the capital investment which will support jobs and investment' the Minister said 'the Government recently drew up a list of the 20 largest projects being developed over the next 4 years. Half of these are PPPs. The projects have a combined indicative value of €3.27billion and are targeted for delivery from late 2014 to 2018'.

Turning to Energy, he stated that energy policy has a pivotal role to play in creating the conditions for economic recovery and for job creation. 'Building our energy infrastructure is becoming more challenging' he said 'yet EirGrid delivered a major project the East West Interconnector (EWIC) between UK and Ireland on time and within budget. EWIC demonstrates not only our collective commitment to necessary large scale investment, it is also a practical demonstration of Ireland's ability to complete a major European scale energy project efficiently, safely and to the highest standards'.

Minister with Fintan Slye CEO EirGrid, Marian Regan NewEra
/ National Treasury Management Agency
and Denis Cagney Director of Energy Networks and Renewables
at Commission for Energy Regulation (CER)
On continued Government support for renewable energy the Minister was unequivocal - 'transforming Ireland's economy from one based on a predominantly fossil fuel to a more indigenous low carbon economy that is centred on energy efficiency, renewable energy and smart networks offers the greatest scope to address the inter-related challenges of climate change, energy security and competitiveness'.
 Board Member Robyn Kelly with Fellow 2008 UCD Biosystems Graduates Damien Farrelly and Liam Brennan

He also spoke of the island of Ireland being 'effectively a successful live research facility especially in the Smart Grid evolution. This is because the Single Electricity Market (SEM) in north and south is relatively small yet with ambitious targets for renewable energy generation (40%). There is no other system in Europe making this possible.
ex CEO EirGrid Dermot Byrne, Mainstream Director Joe Corbett
and EGA Past President Micheal Loughnane
Regarding the strategic planning process for onshore energy infrastructure in Ireland, the Minister said 'it needs to provide a framework for ensuring that all necessary standards are met and that comprehensive consultation is built into the process... In realising our renewable energy potential, both for domestic and export purposes and realising its inherent economic benefits, we must ensure that the concerns of communities and citizens are properly addressed...(as) the environmental and economic benefits of renewable energy are real'.

Magdalena Douleva UCD Foundation and PJ Rudden EGA President
He concluded 'I want to pay tribute to the central role that UCD has in the production of great engineers and great engineering. You should be very proud to be members of this great Association.'

Siobhan Duggan, Mary White and Martin Hogan attended the event
The Q&A session which followed was very lively even robust at time as the quite well informed audience questioned the Minister on a range of issues - Copenhagen Accord, gas storage, biomass, hydrocarbon exploration, shale gas fracking, European response to US gas prices post shale gas revolution, building energy efficiency. The Minister did not have to pass any of the challenging technical questions to his Chief Technical Adviser Bob Hanna who also attended - a great credit to the Minister's wide knowledge range on energy matters and his experienced political skills also.

PJ Rudden makes EGA Presentation to Minister
As we concluded the event I presented Minister Rabbitte with Dublin Crystal with the UCD logo inscribed on it and thanked him sincerely for his open honest approach to all energy issues raised - a refreshing feature that makes Pat Rabbitte the very successful Minister that he is.

 

 

2 comments:

  1. That is really a great thing.

    I would like to tell that I recently came across a site named parallel infrastructure who is providing the services in telecom, energy infrastructure.
    ParallelInfrastructure - Leading Right-Of-Way (ROW) Management Firm

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  2. First of all, glad to join the Engineering community here.

    I have found that the best way to get started in Engineering Jobs in the oil and gas industry is to begin by having a look at an oil & gas specific job board and seeing which roles are available. In my opinion, it's important to use a job board as you maximize the number of jobs in one place, and avoid missing any great opportunities...saves you time endlessly scanning the internet for the best jobs! The oil & gas job board at the moment with the most jobs listed is Oil and Gas Best Jobs Senior Principal Pressure Equipment Engineer so it may be worth giving that a try as a starting point. Once you have a good idea of the type of jobs which are available for your skills, tailor your resume to emphasize the points which would be relevant. Then simply start sending your resume off for the jobs you like the look of (you just need to register/upload your CV once and you can apply for as many jobs as you like).



    I hope this helps!





    Charlotte

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