600 construction workers now on site at Great Island as SSE employs local

Over 600 workers are now employed on the construction of SSE’s 461MW CCGT (Combined Cycle Gas Turbine) power plant at Great Island, Co. Wexford. Around 70% of the 600-plus workers currently working on site are local to Co. Wexford as well as neighbouring counties Waterford and Kilkenny.

The Great Island CCGT is one of the largest infrastructural projects currently under construction on the island of Ireland and is the single largest capital project in power generation that SSE is currently developing in either the UK or Ireland. When completed next year, the project will generate enough electricity to power around half a million homes and will significantly decarbonise electricity generation in Ireland.

On top of the 600 staff working on the new CCGT power plant, SSE has around 50 full-time employees working at both SSE’s existing 240MW fuel oil Great Island Power Station and also at its 27MW Richfield Wind Farm at Bridgetown, Co. Wexford. Around 85% of these 50 full-time SSE employees live locally in Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny.

“We value the people working on our project at Great Island; they are our most important asset,” Peter Gavican, SSE’s Project Manager for the Great Island CCGT Project, said. “Without their genuine, honest and impressive commitment and teamwork we would not be in the position we are today in terms of delivery of this important infrastructural project for Wexford and the country. As we approach a critical stage on our project we admire their dedication and what they have achieved. We look forward to working with them and additional new recourses during the rest of the project until completion. They are really doing a great job.

“In addition to roles currently employed on the construction of the replacement CCGT power plant, SSE has created 40 full time roles to operate the new gas plant upon commissioning. These roles are already in place and the positions have overwhelmingly been filled by qualified technicians local to the area with around 90% of those recruited coming from Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny.”

SSE is investing over €330 million in the construction of the new plant. When completed it will be Ireland’s cleanest, most efficient and reliable gas power plant on the Irish national grid. Since it first entered Ireland’s energy market in 2008, SSE has invested the equivalent of €1 million every day for the last five years, bringing its total investment in Ireland to over €2 billion in the period.

Peter Gavican continued: “When it was first commissioned in 1967, the Great Island power station was Ireland’s premier power station and today at Great Island SSE is constructing what will once again be Ireland's premier station when it is commissioned in 2014.”