To mark ESB's 90th anniversary, they have invited the public to visit and explore one of Ireland's greatest engineering developments at Ardnacrusha Power Station in Co Clare. I visited the station on Monday 15th August for one of the guided tours.

As part of the Shannon hydro-electric scheme, Ardnascrusha took just four years (1925 to 1929) and 5,000 workers to build. Costing more than IR£5m to construct at the time - almost one-fifth of the entire annual budget - Ardnacrusha became a symbol of forward thinking in relation to harnessing Ireland’s natural resources. With the national grid constructed at the same time, the 86 MW capacity was then enough to meet the electricity demands of the whole country. Today, Ardnacrusha represents around 2% of the ESB's installed capacity.

Public tours are ​available from July 1 to August 31 2017. At the time of writing, availability until the end of August is very limited.

For more please click https://esb.ie/our-businesses/generation-energy-trading-new/ardnacrusha-tours