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Bord Gáis or Bord Gáis Éireann - The Irish Gas Board (BGE) is the main supplier and distributer 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 the Electricity Supply Board as well as domestic and industrial customers.
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Origins
Bord Gáis 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 oldest of the small private companies was the Alliance and Dublin Gas Company, which had been founded in the early nineteenth century by Daniel O'Connell, a prominent Irish politician and Lord Mayor of Dublin. Bord Gais aquired this old towns gas company when it went in to liquidation in 1987.
For nearly two decades the main supply of gas available for Bord Gáis came from a 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.
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 the Isle of Man. It is planning a network to Belfast and Derry in Northern Ireland. Most of its modern gas supply is imported. A new gas field off the Mayo coast is scheduled to come onstream in the first decade of the twenty-first century.
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. In July 2004 Bord Gáis, as part of national deregulation, the customer support and network building parts of the company were ringfenced in to two new business units Bord Gáis Energy Supply (BGES) and Bord Gáis Distribution or (BGD). The latter business unit now works with all the companies in the Irish gas market as well as with BGES. Although fully legal separation in to two new companies is required under EU directives Bord Gais have so far failed to comply.
A step-by-step degulation of the Irish gas market is currently in process, with part of the original Bord Gáis network handed over to a rival company, FloGas for two years to allow them to build up a customer base. Full degulation is not expected to take place for a number of years. Bord Gais has been accused by new market entrants of abusing its dominant position and has been the subject of investigations by the Irish Competition Authority.
Bord Gáis has itself begun to diversify, entering into the electricity production market. Bord Gais also had a number of subsidiary companies all of whom have found themselves in financial difficulty through mismanagment.
Market Share
As of 2005 BGES has over five hundred thousand customers.
- Official site (http://www.bge.ie)