Bord Gáis

Infobox_Company
company_name = Bord Gáis Éireann
company_
company_type = Statutory Corporation
company_slogan = "Energy by nature, harnessed by Bord Gáis"
foundation = Cork, Ireland (1975)
location = Cork, Ireland
key_people = John Mullins, Chief Executive
Ed O'Connell Chairman
num_employees = 900 (2008)
products = Natural Gas, electricity
revenue = €1215m (2007) [http://www.bordgais.ie/corporate/index.jsp?1nID=93&nID=94#9]
industry = Natural Gas
homepage = [http://www.bordgais.ie/ www.bordgais.ie]

"Bord Gáis Éireann - The Irish Gas Board", normally branded as Bord Gáis, is the main supplier and distributor of pipeline natural gas in the Republic of Ireland. The company is currently building an extensive network across the Republic. The company supplies gas to domestic and industrial customers on a fully regulated basis. The tariffs for customers are determined by the Commission for Energy Regulation.

Origins

Bord Gáis Éireann was established as a semi-state company by the Irish government in 1975 to replace a series of private sector small city-based gas companies, some of whom had got into financial trouble. The company was originally established as a private limited company by shares, Bord Gáis Éireann Teoranta, before being converted to a statutory corporation under the Gas Act 1976, the primary legislation under which BGE operates.

The oldest of the small private companies was the Alliance and Dublin Consumers' Gas Company, which had been founded in the early nineteenth century by Daniel O'Connell, a prominent Irish politician and Lord Mayor of Dublin. After initially supplying the company (known simply as "Dublin Gas" by the 1980s) with wholesale natural gas, Bord Gáis acquired the assets of the company when it went into receivership in 1987, including its head office in D'Olier Street, Dublin. Other town gas companies were acquired by Bord Gáis in Cork, Limerick, Clonmel, and Kilkenny. Bord Gáis is headquartered in Cork city, though it also has had a substantial presence in Dublin since the acquisition of the assets of Dublin Gas. In 2002 Bord Gáis sold the landmark Dublin Gas head office building in Dublin to Trinity College Dublin, and moved to purpose built premises in Foley Street which is now the main offices of Bord Gáis Energy Supply.

For nearly two decades the main supply of gas available for Bord Gáis came from a Marathon Petroleum owned gasfield near Kinsale, off the Cork coast. This gas field had been found in 1971, the same year as the foundation of the Nuclear Energy Board. This gas field comes ashore at Inch in Co. Cork.

Network and Supply

The company has a network between Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford with a number of spurs, this network is connected to Scotland via two separate interconnectors and also has a spur to the Isle of Man which supplies Manx Electricity. Most of its modern gas supply is imported. A new gas field known as the Corrib off the Mayo coast is scheduled to come onstream by 2008, however Bord Gais will only be purchasing a small amount off the offtake, the majority will be traded on the International Petroleum Exchange.

Northern Ireland

Bord Gáis has an ambitious plan to develop the gas market in Northern Ireland. A pipeline from Carrickfergus to Derry was completed in October 2004 and now serves Coolkeeragh Power Station. A second pipeline, known as the South-North pipeline, was commissioned in October 2006. It runs from Gormanston in the Republic to join the Carrick/Derry pipeline near Antrim creating an all-Ireland network and providing redundancy in case of problems with either Scotland - Northern Ireland pipeline or the Scotland - Republic of Ireland interconnectors.

The Northern Ireland Authority for Energy Regulation has awarded Bord Gáis a licence to supply homes and businesses in the towns and cities near the two pipelines - Antrim, Armagh, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Banbridge, Craigavon, Derry, Limavady and Newry - where the local subsidiaries of BG use the trading name of "firmus energy". On 1 December 2005, firmus launched their first supply in Northern Ireland, to the large Michelin tyre factory in Ballymena. On 25 April 2006, the Belfast Telegraph [http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/business/story.jsp?story=688447 reported] the connection of firmus' first residential customers in Derry.

The decision to award this licence was widely disputed and Phoenix Gas, the incumbent in Belfast and the surrouning area, launched a judicial review of the decision to award it to BGE, they claimed that it was more of a political decision and they claimed that Bord Gáis will lose a significant amount of money and the business will be loss making.

Retail operations

Bord Gáis Energy Supply has twelve stores (branded Energy Supply Stores) around the country, however they are run on a franchise basis and not by Bord Gáis itself. In 2002 Bord Gáis Natural Gas Showroom in D'Olier Street, operated by the company itself, was closed, in 2006 its Cork company-owned showroom was also closed.

Deregulation of the Irish gas market

The major public utility companies underwent major reform in the early 2000s, following the creation of the Commission for Energy Regulation. The structure of Bord Gáis has evolved over time to adapt to regulatory and market conditions. Bord Gáis now has two main business streams – Networks and Energy Supply. The company’s primary activities are the development and operation of gas networks and the supply of gas and electricity. Further restructuring is underway to meet the legal unbundling requirements of the EU Gas Directive 2003/55/EC. The Gas Directive requires that, in the case of vertically integrated utilities such as Bord Gáis, the Transmission System Operator (TSO) and the Distribution System Operator (DSO) functions to be legally and functionally unbundled from activities not related to these functions, although a combined DSO/TSO is permissible. Therefore a new independent subsidiary, The Irish System Operator, is being established to fulfil the functions of the Irish TSO and DSO.

All natural gas customers are now eligible to change gas supplier from Bord Gáis Energy Supply to an alternative shipper.

ubsidiary companies

Bord Gáis operates a number of subsidiary companies BG CoGen and Combined Heat and Power business and Aurora Telecom a telco venture which is now a dark fibre leasing company.

Main offices

*HQ - Gasworks Road, Cork
*Energy Supply, IT & Shared Services - Foley Street, Dublin 1
*Networks - Arena Road, Sandyford Business Park, Dublin 18
*Firmus Energy - Kilbegs Business Park, Antrim BT41 4NN

Market share

As of 2007 Bord Gáis has over six hundred thousand customers.

External links

* [http://www.bordgais.ie Official site]
* [http://www.bgcogen.com Bord Gais Cogen official site]
* [http://www.auroratelecom.ie Aurora official site]
* [http://www.firmusenergy.co.uk firmus energy official site]
* [http://www.southnorthpipeline.com South North pipeline official site]