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The Irish Times has learned that Dublin City Council
has signed a contract with developer, Treasury Holdings
to provide heating for apartments in Spencer Dock from the
Poolbeg incinerator, which has yet to be granted a licence
from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The council has secured planning permission for the incinerator
from An Bord Pleanála - but needs a waste licence from the
EPA to operate the plant.
The EPA is to hold an oral hearing on the council's licence
application. This hearing begins in two weeks and will hear
from groups who are opposed to the incinerator, as well as
the council (Click
Here).
The proposed incinerator is being challenged in the courts
by local opposition group Combined Residents Against Incineration.
The action is being taken against the Minister for the Environment,
Heritage and Local Government, the Attorney General, Dublin
City Council and An Bord Pleanála and relates to certain EU
environmental directives.
However, the council has decided to press ahead with agreements
and infrastructure to provide heating generated by the plant
to offices and apartments in the docklands area.
The Irish Times reports that the council is to provide
'district heating' for the equivalent of 20,000 people
in Treasury's Spencer Dock development and has already begun
laying the pipes from the proposed site of the incinerator
to the complex.
The district heating system allows the heat to be pumped
directly to apartments and offices without the need for a
boiler in each building. The council estimates that once the
system is up and running, the apartment owners will receive
bills that are about 20 per cent lower than those of the ESB
or Bord Gáis.
Although the plant does not have a licence - and will not
be completed until 2011/2012 - assistant city manager Matt
Twomey said it was prudent to plan ahead for district heating.
The financial benefit to the council from this deal cannot
be revealed because of commercial sensitivity, Mr Twomey added.
A feasibility study on the capacity for district heating,
once the plant is fully operational, is to be published in
the coming months and is to include details of the profits
to be made by the council. The council is also in the process
of choosing a service provider which will issue heating bills
on its behalf.
While residents in new apartments will benefit from lower
utility bills, existing residents living in older houses near
the plant site, will not - at least in the short to medium-term
- Mr Towmey said.
Several local residents expressed disappointment that they
would not benefit from district heating at a meeting held
by the council in Ringsend recently. The meeting was organised
to give residents further details of the plant's community
gain fund consisting of an €8 million lump sum and €500,000
annually.
Source - The Irish Times
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