We have known about the selling off by the state of Bord Gais Energy for a while now – but most people in Ireland are probably not aware that it has already happened.
Most of the 650,000 Bord Gais Energy customers probably haven’t noticed the privatisation of their energy supplier that is is now owned by Centrica.
(Maybe everyone is more concerned about Garth Brooks concerts?)
The sale to Centrica was only approved by the EU on June 16th – but the takeover has already quietly happened. Both the BordGaisEnergy website and the Centrica website were updated sometime in June to say that BGE became part of Centrica in “mid 2014”
It appears to have been a bargain buy for Centrica at only €150m – (with a power station included). The sell off was suggested by the IMF/ECB as a way to help pay off some of the debts caused by the bank bailouts More details of the Centrica deal here.
The well timed deregulation of Bord Gais Energy’s gas charges will help Centrica to compete with other gas providers and build on it’s large customer base. We expect to see gas prices falling – at least for new gas customers of Bord Gais Energy.
The old “Bord Gais Eireann” which was the “parent company ” of Bord Gais Energy – is now to be known as Ervia to avoid any confusion or conflict with the now privatised Bord Gais Energy brand . More about Ervia here.
Ervia will be the parent group for Gas Networks Ireland and Irish Water. At the moment the www.ervia.ie website and www.ervia.com just redirect users to www.BordGais.ie .
Gas Networks Ireland own, operate, build and maintain the natural gas network in Ireland and connect all customers to the network. But … they carry out these activities on behalf of Gaslink. Has anyone heard of them?
Gaslink has been around since 2007 and since July 4th 2008, Gaslink are the Transmission System Operator (TSO) and Distribution System Operator (DSO) and are responsible for operating, maintaining and developing Ireland’s natural gas transmission and distribution systems.