Media Section
Northern Ireland Energy Holdings Annual General Meeting
NI Energy Holdings Annual Report - PDF now available online Press Release - 19th March 2009
Minister visits Northern Ireland Energy Holdings site
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Arlene Foster, MLA has today visited one of the Northern Ireland Energy Holdings gas pressure reduction sites, outside Holywood, part of the 34km Belfast Gas Transmission pipeline infrastructure, which transports natural gas to the Greater Belfast and Larne markets. She was welcomed to the site by Peter Warry, Chairman of Northern Ireland Energy Holdings (NIEH), which owns and operates the pipelines.
The Minister’s visit marked the first year of ownership of the Belfast Gas Transmission pipeline by NIEH. The company also operates the Scotland to Northern Ireland gas pipeline (SNIP) and the 500 megawatt Moyle electricity interconnector to Scotland. NIEH purchased the pipeline from Phoenix Natural Gas in early 2008 in a deal worth £99.3 million.
This ‘mutual’ business model for financing energy assets adopted by NIEH, has reduced the cost of operating this pipeline from £9.6 million a year to about £4.5 million, a reduction of over 50%. This reduction is because of the very low “cost of capital” and because there are no shareholders and therefore no dividend distribution. The “life time” savings of this deal are in the region of £25 million (NPV) and all of this will ultimately be delivered back to consumers by way of lower gas prices.
Speaking following the Minister’s visit, NIEH Chairman Peter Warry commented
“We were delighted to meet Minister Arlene Foster to explain the operation of our gas transmission system used to transport all the gas used in Northern Ireland, and to discuss how the consumer benefits from our business model in providing this vital service”.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Investment, Arlene Foster, MLA with NIEH Chairman, Peter Warry at NIEH’s Knocknagoney site
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Notes for editors:
- Northern Ireland Energy Holdings is a company limited by guarantee. Its principal objective is to own and operate energy infrastructure assets in the interests of the energy consumers of Northern Ireland. The company is a mutualised entity and therefore has no shareholders and its primary stakeholders are energy consumers.
- For further information contact:
Northern Ireland Energy Holdings Press & Media Contact
Owen McQuade
Lagan Consulting
T: 028 9261 9550
M: 07967 094494
email: owen.mcquade@laganconsulting.com
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