Poolbeg station actually consists of two separate power stations:

The City of Dublin Electricity Works founded Pigeon House Power Station in 1903 and the site supplied most of Dublin’s electricity until the 1950s. It was retired in 1976.

A new Poolbeg Station was built beside the old Pigeon House station and began producing electricity in 1971. The first two 120MW sets were originally oil-fired – the first set were commissioned in August 1971 and the second set commissioned in December 1971. There was just the one chimney.

The second chimney came later when a new 270MW set was added in November 1978.
Boilers 2 and 3 were converted to gas incrementally, with both fully commissioned in May 1984. The conversion of boiler 1 to gas was completed by July 1984, and the three sets were fully synchronised in March 1985, at a combined capacity of 510MW.

​More recently, in 2000, ESB upgraded Poolbeg to use combined gas cycle technology (CCGT). At the time, this brought the CCGT unit thermal efficiency to 52% and overall output to 480 MW. The CCGT technology includes: two Siemens V94.2 gas turbines, two Siemens/Austrian Energy Heat Recover Steam Generators (boilers) and one Siemens steam turbine. Siemens electrical generators are fitted to each of the two gas turbines and steam turbine.

​Finally, on 31 March 2010, ESB retired Poolbeg Units 1, 2 and 3, leaving the station’s output at 480MW MW from the CCGT unit.

Poolbeg video 1977

Click the images below for more information relating to the history and operation of Poolbeg station.