firmus energy: taking natural gas further in Northern Ireland
Local natural gas company, firmus energy, has ambitious plans to invest around £120 million in Northern Ireland over the next six years, developing its network and making natural gas available to more than 170,000 homes and businesses.
Michael Scott, Managing Director of firmus energy explains: “Since being awarded our licence to develop the natural gas network in 2005, we have invested more than £100 million, connecting more than 30,000 customers who are now enjoying the many benefits of natural gas in over 30 cities, towns and villages throughout Northern Ireland. More than 90 per cent of industrial and commercial properties, for whom natural gas is now available within our Licensed Area, have also connected to our network, indicating how important natural gas is to the economic landscape of Northern Ireland. firmus energy has already constructed over 1,100km of network, and our planned investment will see this almost double in length, to c.2,000km over the next six years.
Michael continues: “We are very proud of firmus energy’s success, having achieved significant year on year growth for every year since the award of our licence in 2005, and today we are connecting in excess of 4,000 new residential and commercial customers annually to the network. We are committed to our investment programme to increase the availability of natural gas across Northern Ireland, providing continued economic benefits and opportunities for the wider supply chain which includes local contractors, installers, retailers, manufacturers, merchants and many other support agencies.
“Investment in our people and communities is also an important ingredient to our success, and we were delighted to have been recently awarded CORE Silver accreditation from Business in the Community. The CORE accreditation recognises Northern Ireland’s leading organisations in corporate responsibility, assessing performance in a wide variety of categories including staff engagement, community engagement and marketplace responsibility. The CORE framework not only encourages and recognises our continuous improvement, but by benchmarking us to other blue chip organisations, we can ensure we are always leading the way on CSR. Corporate responsibility is a cornerstone to firmus energy’s success and will remain integral to our continued plans for investment.”
Conversion to natural gas from more polluting fossil fuels such as coal and home heating oil, represents a significant investment in a healthier environment for Northern Ireland. To date, conversion to natural gas within firmus energy’s network area has displaced over 800,000 tonnes of CO2 from Northern Ireland’s atmosphere, and the displacement of CO2 during this phase of investment will be equivalent to removing approximately 30,000 cars from our roads, every year for the next six years.
firmus energy’s natural gas network (known as the ‘Ten Towns Licensed Area’) extends from Newry in the south east, through Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon, Antrim, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Limavady, and Coleraine, to Derry/Londonderry in the north west. This significant investment of £120 million will enable an extensive infill construction programme to be undertaken, bringing fuel choice and the benefits of natural gas to more than 170,000 homes and businesses across Northern Ireland. It also consolidates our commitment to the wider natural gas industry, our communities and Northern Ireland’s environment.
firmus energy
T: 0800 032 4567
W: www.firmusenergy.co.uk
