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ESB WORKERS RARELY get mistaken for James Bond villains.
You’d never expect them to, for example, throw a cocktail party inside a mountain.
That’s set to change today, however.
The energy provider will be hosting a concert inside Turlough Hill in Co Wicklow this evening to mark the hydro-electric station’s 40th anniversary.
The power station — located in the Wicklow Gap near Glendalough — was completed in 1974 after a six year construction process.
It generates up to 292MW of electricity (yes, that’s a lot) during peak demand times by releasing water from its upper reservoir through its four turbines and into its lower lake.
Staff involved in the construction of the massive project, local dignitaries and various other invited guests will be attending tonight’s bash.
Amongst the performers will be the Clare Memory Orchestra, the Wicklow Choral Society and well-known trad musicians Martin Hayes and Denis Cahill.
Interestingly, the man the station was named after will be guest of honour…
Dermot O’Riordan, the former Deputy Chief Civil Engineer with the ESB, was the man who came up with the idea for the Wicklow Station. The late engineer named the project after his son, Turlough, who now lives in Norway and manages an energy company there — he’s travelled over especially for tonight’s event .
Schoolchildren get a guided tour of Turlough Hill [ESB]
The concert is one of a number of events happening at the plant this summer as part of the 40th birthday celebrations.
Free guided tours are also being offered: They’re available every Tuesday to Friday until the end of August. Special weekend tours are also available during the weekends of the 12 July and 9 August.
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If you are into engineering or even if your not take the opportunity to have a look it really is amazing!
Seen it a few times, looks awesome
My uncle was killed on-site during the construction of this facility. He was working with others to repair a crane, when a overhead steel girder fell. He managed to push his work colleague out of the way, but he was caught underneath and died instantly. My grandmother was notified that a collection was made by the construction workers to donate a stained glass window memorial to be located in one of the churches nearby. However I have not been able to find it despite several visits to Laragh, Glendalough, Roundwood and other village churches.
If anyone can shed more light on what exactly happened that day, and on the subsequent memorial, it would be of great solace to my mother and to her other two brothers. The man’s name was Dan Flaherty. The date was in May 71 or 72.
My father was a crane operator during the construction
6 people died in the incident, my friends father was working there, and in the tunnel before the collapse; I’ll ask today when I see him.
Sure why not they made a hefty profit last year and still rising the price of electricity despite people struggling to pay for everything… Let’s celebrate being a wealthy government body and fleecing the little man!!!!!!!
Bunch of wa#kers!
You are of course aware the ESB or any of the other electric power providers don’t set their own prices.
This is done by an independent regulator,they also aren’t a government body…… but don’t let such facts get in the way of being angry about something.
So Adrian who does the profits go to????
And yes they are a government body..
So celebrating a major engineering success (which probably kept energy prices down over many decades by reducing the amount of oil we needed to import) is now worthy of being called a bunch of wa#nkers. Says more about you than about them.
The ESB and many other semi state bodies pay dividends to the state (you and I). If you honestly think that not throwing this party is going to make a significant difference to your power bill then you are completely delusional!
Electric Ireland has around 1.3 million domestic customers, if the party cost €50k (gross over estimation I reckon) then each each customer would have to pay about €0.04 extra this year to pay for it!
http://www.cer.ie/docs/000646/cer13197-q1-2013-electricity-and-gas-retail-market-report.pdf
Elaine
If everyone paid their bills the price mite come down a little fir everyone.
But there are people who just don’t wNt to pay for anything so the rest of us pick up the tab.
This is a massive engineering success story for our country.
And it should be celebrated!
ESB are a government body
Nobody gets away with not paying their ESB bill
Ciaran not everyone out there can pay there bills, obviously the recession didn’t hit your house, how can you be so ignorant or are you an esb minnion who will strike if they don’t get there so called entitlements …
Thank you Seamus..
The ESB is hosting this commemoration, not Airtricity or Electric Ireland or any of the other providers you may be with Elaine. To think that we should not celebrate such monumental feats in our country’s development because some people are using more electricity then they can afford is very shortsighted. Even when we had full employment, with huge expenditure and minimal taxation; there were still those who could not pay their bills for whatever reason. The world can’t stop revolving….
ESB is a semi state company not a government.
You seam to be also confused as to the roles or ESB, ESB Networks and Electric Ireland.
I’m ignorant!!
Recession hit most of our nations house holds along with my own.
No I don’t work for the ESB.
Some people don’t pay,move provider and run up massive debts that get written off for them.
Unfortunately you don’t get things in life for free
Elaine Cassin. I understand your anger this a.m. But today you should side line it as this is the 40th anniversary of an Irish engineering marvel that benefits everyone on the island. It’s sobering also to read Brens story. A man lost his life during construction. Take a taxi, visit, and enjoy.
Yes “the rebel one” I understand where your coming from but it may be just a little hard for people who have no electricity because they have been cut off due to lack of money to pay there bill because they have been put out of work, I’m sure a marvellous engineering structure is of no interest to them,.. I sympathise with the people who’s relatives were killed injured during it’s build, but shouldn’t the esb be thinking of ways to drop there prices instead of hiking the price every year and then rubbing people’s nose in it with this carry on..
Hi Elaine. You’ve got the bit between your teeth today. I agree totally with what you say but prices for electricity I don’t believe will fall. For example Cathleens Falls is a hydroelectric generating station in Donegal. As we speak there is a crack team of electricians from Germany on site. They are rewinding the internals of the turbines on site as they cannot be removed. This team will be on site for one year at a cost of …….well if I told you it wold make you more angry. Do you see my point?
Yeah I’m sure Clare Memory Orchestra and the Wicklow Choral Society cost big bucks. It’s a staff event just like any other. Their having it on ESB property and having a few local musicians. I would imagine an end of year dinner at a company would cost more.
But any reason to moan.
Wouldn’t you throw a party if someone else is paying for it.
The old man brought us on a guided tour as kids in the 70′s. I can remember the ESB VW air-cooled vans. it was like something like out of the WW2 movie Operation Crossbow…. Highly recommended,
http://pages.nxtbook.com/nxteu/zahra/em_20130607/acc/zahra_em_20130607_026-03.jpg
Nooo… Someone is paying for electricity.
Just like I’m sure customers pay the establishment for which you work for a product or service and in the course of that process your employer provides you with a paycheck and other benefits in exchange for your part in providing it
Cool pic frank, is it open for public tours? Never heard of it, but would love to see it now.
Vincent F The old man was an engineer, we got to see some of the secret places in there…. :)
You can book with them here…
Great pictures and tour info. The VW…those were the days! Well done.
ESB …Volt Wagons …
Choirs and trad? They should have got Big Generator….
No explanation or description of the facility. Is there a building under the mountain, lake or what?
Tunnels a number of them cut from stone
Here is a small photo of the Turbine hall under the mountain, I think there are 6 turbines and the whole place looks like a James Bond set. The turbine hall is a large Cathedral like room almost directly under the upper lake, you drive down to the turbine hall in a car.
My uncle was a chief engineer there for many years, he gave me and my brother a tour of the power station after the ESB Christmas party.
http://www.kiltealyelectrical.com/esb.html
Here’s a old photo in the access tunnel leading to the Turbine hall.
http://pages.nxtbook.com/nxteu/zahra/em_20130607/acc/zahra_em_20130607_026-03.jpg
Reduce my e.s.b. bill. Forget about having party’s at bill payers expense.
And I suppose, you’ll be expecting Super Valu to do away with their staff parties, so you can have a lower grocery bill. And not just them either. Let’s take away the nurses staff parties, and the Guards, and your local hairdresser. It would all bring down prices.
Francis, these are ordinary hard-working people, working for a company that the whole country depends on. Give them a fècking break.
We’ll Denis speaking personally hairdressers did have to bring down there prices because of competition in the country.. That’s what this country needs another electricity provider..
And yes if you notice that supermarkets do bring there prices down in occasion, don’t ever remember the esb bringing there’s down..
Lots of red thumb esb workers on this today.. Must be the union..
What action have you taking to reduce your bills.
What type lamps have you? Who is your supplier ? When did you last move supplier?
Mind your own business…
What measures did you take? Do you use candle light?
And anyway thankfully I still have my job as does my husband, and we can pay the extortionate esb bills even though we are never here as were always working, I am speaking of the unfortunate people who have lost there jobs and can’t pay for it. Seriously people are so pig ignorant… The esb are having a party, and rubbing peoples nose in it.. Lovely!!!!!
When you start bitching on a public forum it becomes other peoples business it appears that you have done nothing to help yourself but feel entitled to bitch about others.
Cut down on usage be energy efficient and your bills will drop,
I was going to offer you free professional advice to reduce your bills.
shes always bitching about something
Let me guess Brian because you work for esb???
Having an opinion lance is not bitching….
Elaine I am sorry you are distressed by present circumstances and I hope things get better for you and your family. There are other electricity providers. The ESB have reduced their prices. There is competition. By the way Ireland used to have one of the lowest electrical prices in the EU until we were forced to have “competition” instead of a monopoly. The ESB was required to stop building plants (so new suppliers could enter the market and this nearly led to national blackouts on several occasions) and keep their prices artificially high so new suppliers could enter the market and undercut them. Competition – you gotta love it! Now that this engineered process has worked the ESB (Electric Ireland) can reduce their prices. The main component of price is not wages, it’s the world price of oil and gas. And Turlough Hill is an engineering marvel and typical of what this excellent company have done in an engineering sense over the years.
No Elaine, I’m on energy manager ( with an MSc in energy management) with over ten years experience. I see people moan the whole time about energy prices, but yet do nothing a about reducing theirs. I believe in bringing solutions not problems. You need to help yourself before expecting others to help you,
Elaine, calling the staff who are having a party a bunch of wan#ers, as you did in your original post, is indeed bitching to my mind.
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