Over 7,000 homes in the county will be connected to the network when the Gas to the West project is completed in 2018. However, speaking at a public consultation event in Enniskillen last week Paddy Larkin, chief executive of Mutual Energy, said it wasn’t just those located along the main route of the pipeline who may be able to benefit from the project.  

 

Mr Larkin explained that a large section of the route from Portadown to Enniskillen will be a high-pressure pipeline, while the connections from Enniskillen to Derrylin will be intermediate-pressure lines that would be cheaper to connect to, meaning there was potential for many more villages and groups of businesses to also connect to the network. 

 

“It’s a lot easier to connect to the intermediate lines, which run alongside the roads,” he said. “If it runs past a town, village or industrial estate it’s generally feasible to connect to that, whereas it’s not feasible to connect to the high-pressure line. It would need to be a very big user to justify their own connection, but if you get groups together you could get a consolidated approach from users, so there’s lots of options.”

 

Mr Larkin said the Fermanagh side of the project was currently on track, although keeping to schedule would be a challenge: “This phase of the project is about design and pre-planning. It’ll culminate in a planning application being submitted around June next year.