NIE system operation [electricity supply]

This paper presents an overview of Northern Ireland´s electricity supply industry which existed as a government run monopoly prior to 1992 when the industry was initially privatised. The privatisation process broke up the original vertically integrated company by selling off the generating stations to private companies and creating NIE plc, which has responsibility for power purchase and operating the transmission and distribution system. The system has presently one main interconnection to the South of Ireland and two standby low capacity links for transmission emergencies