BASF

Following the reunification of Germany, BASF acquired a site in Schwarzheide, eastern Germany, on October 25, 1990. This was later merged with Esat Telecom (now BT Ireland), although the brand partially remains as an ISP service, oceanfree.net. Following a change in corporate strategy in 1965, greater emphasis was placed on higher-value products such as coatings, pharmaceuticals, crop protection agents and fertilizers. ESB has also been involved in telecommunications, as part owner of Ocean, a telecommunications company which was a joint venture with BT Group plc. In the 1960s, the production abroad was expanded and plants were built in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, United Kingdom, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the United States. However agreement to accomplish this has been frequently delayed. BASF developed polystyrene (Styropor®) in 1951. It has been policy for some years that the ESB National Grid division, which operates the national grid, is to be separated into an independent Transmission System Operator, called Eirgrid plc.

With the German economic miracle in the 1950s, BASF added synthetics such as nylon to its product range. These are to be sold to Bank of Scotland (Ireland). In 1952, BASF was refounded under its own name. ESB Retail operate a chain of high street electrical shops under the ShopElectric brand. On July 28, 1948 an explosion in which 207 people died occurred in Ludwigshafen. Today the ESB consists of several distinct divisions: ESB Power Generation is responsible for electricity generation and has 19 power stations and a wind power subsidiary; ESB International (ESBI) manages projects abroad in the electricity supply, generation and distribution markets; ESB National Grid manages the National Grid, and also transmits energy from other suppliers, including Airtricity; ESBI Computing manages large government and international information technology projects. The allies dissolved IG Farben in November 1945. The company also operates a few small wind farms throughout the country through its subsidary Hibernian Wind Energy.

The Ludwigshafen site was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War and was subsequently rebuilt. There are additional hydro-electric schemes on the rivers Clady, Erne, Lee and Liffey. Following the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in 1933, IG Farben cooperated with the Nazi regime, profiting from guaranteed volumes and prices and from the forced laborers provided by the government. The Ardnacrusha hydro-electric scheme and Turlough Hill pumped storage scheme are the most significant renewable energy plants. In 1935, the BASF and AEG presented the magnetophone – the first tape recorder – at the Radio Exhibition in Berlin. Much of the peat is supplied by Bord na Móna while Bord Gáis supplies gas via its network. Rubber, fuels and coatings were added to the product range. Moneypoint and Poolbeg are the two most significant fossil fuel power stations — their combined capacity accounts for over a third of total capacity.

Under the leadership of Carl Bosch, BASF founded IG Farben together with Hoechst, Bayer and three other companies, thus losing its independence. Most of the ESB's generation capacity relies on peat, coal, oil, and wind generation. This was the biggest catastrophe in German industry. Later there was a proposal to build a nuclear power plant at Carnsore Point, and preparatory work was carried out, but these never resulted in an operational plant, owing to widespread public opposition. On September 21, 1921, an explosion occurred in Oppau, killing 565 people. Although Ireland has no nuclear power plants, an Act of the Oireachtas in 1971 created the Nuclear Energy Board. As a result of this monopoly, BASF was able to start operations at a new site in Leuna in 1916, where explosives were produced during the First World War. Domestic equipment followed the UK British Standards for the most part with very few exceptions, perhaps the only one being that Irish bathrooms generally do not have cord-operated lights but rather a traditional light switch outside.

The development of the Haber-Bosch process from 1908 to 1912 made it possible to synthesize ammonia, and in 1913 BASF started a new production plant in Oppau, adding fertilizers to its product range. The Shannon Scheme was the start of the ESB's reliance on German electro-technology, especially for plant, in particular Siemens and the associated 220 volt supply. Industrial production meant that the price could be cut drastically, and one effect was to make jeans affordable work clothes. It should also be remembered that workers of the company may be "on call" after hours, weekends and at holidays because of the unpredictability of emergencies. Until this time, indigo was extracted from plants and was expensive. National surveys show, in line with other similar semi-state sector workers, that wages are above the national average - one recent survey [1] showed that the average salary costs are twice the national average. In 1867, research into synthesis of the dye indigo was successfully concluded. The last major strike was in 1991, though strike action had been threatened as recently as February 2005 and often at times of industrial dispute.

BASF was founded in Mannheim, Germany, by Friedrich Engelhorn in 1865 for the production of dyes. The company is heavily unionised with the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) being one of the largest unions in the company. In Central and Eastern Europe, Wintershall works with its Russian partner Gazprom. The ESB is one of the largest companies in Ireland and employs over 8,500 people, it is 5% owned by its workers - this ownership is know as ESB ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) Trustee Limited. BASF explores for and produces oil and gas through its subsidiary Wintershall AG. Existing staff are to be offered positions as bank tellers. Products from this segment include fungicides, pesticides, herbicides, vitamins, pharmaceutical active ingredients and UV absorbers for sun creams. On 16 March 2005, the ESB announced that it is to sell its ShopElectric (ESB Retail) chain of shops, with the exception of the Dublin Fleet Street and Cork city centre outlets, to Bank of Scotland (Ireland), who will convert them into high street banks.

In the field of plant biotechnology, BASF is concentrating on solutions for effective agriculture, healthier nutrition and plants to make products more efficiently. Business users have already been able to choose their electricity supplier for some years. BASF is a supplier of agricultural products and fine chemicals for agriculture and animal nutrition, and for the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries. Under European Union legislation, the Irish electricity market is to be opened to full competition for domestic users in 2005. Customers are the automotive, oil, paper, packaging, textile, sanitary products, detergents, construction materials, coatings, printing and leather industries. The ESB had a monopoly in the Irish electricity market for the best part of a century. These include raw materials for detergents, textile and leather chemicals, pigments and raw materials for adhesives. Some islands are still powered by small diesel-run power stations.

BASF produces a range of performance chemicals, coatings und functional polymers. On 8 September 2003, two of the last remaining places in Ireland unconnected to the national grid - Inishturbot and Inishturk (County Galway) islands (off the coast of Galway)- were finally connected to the mains supply. BASF’s polyurethanes have very diverse uses worldwide. In 1991, the ESB established the ESB Archive to store historical documents relating to the company and its impact on Irish life. Engineering plastics are sold to injection molders in a variety of industries. In 2002 and 2003, new independent stations were constructed - Huntstown Power (north Dublin) and Dublin Bay Power (Ringsend, Dublin). BASF is the international leading producer of styrenics. The latter, in County Clare, remains Ireland's only coal-burning plant and can produce about 910 MW - just shy of the 1015 MW capacity of Poolbeg.

The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. This new demand was to be met by the construction of the country's two largest power stations — Poolbeg in 1971 and Moneypoint in 1979. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The 1970s brought about a continued increase in Ireland's industrialisation and with it, a greater demand for energy. Its business is organized in the segments Chemicals, Plastics, Performance Products, Agricultural Products & Nutrition and Oil & Gas. The station can store up to 292 MW of power - making it technically the fifth largest source of energy during the day in Ireland. BASF operates in a variety of markets. This station, located in County Wicklow, pumps water uphill at night with the excess energy created by other stations, and releases it downhill during the day to turn turbines.

. Aware of the substantial waste of night-time capacity, the ESB commissioned the Turlough Hill pumped storage hydro-electric station in 1968.
. As in most countries, energy consumption is low at night and high during the day. Between 1990 and 2005, the company will invest €5.6 billion in Asia, for example in sites near Nanjing and Shanghai, China. The two stations have been replaced by new peat-fired stations near the same locations, and peat also used to power the independent Edenderry Power plant, in County Offaly. The company is currently expanding its international activities with a particular focus on Asia. It is located in County Offaly.

In 2003, BASF posted sales of €33.4 billion and income from operations before special items of almost €3 billion. In 1965 the Shannonbridge station was commissioned. BASF has customers in over 170 countries and supplies about 8,000 products to a wide variety of industries. Located in County Longford, the plant burns peat, cut by Bord na Móna in the bogs of the Irish Midlands. At the end of 2003, the company employed more than 87,000 people, with over 48,000 in Germany alone. Because risks of becoming dependent on imported fuel sources and the potential for harvesting and utilising indiginous peat, the ESB - in partnership with Bord na Móna - established those stations and ESB also built Lanesboro power station in 1958. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen am Rhein (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). Other power stations built around this time included the peat fired stations at Portarlington, County Laois, and Allenwood in County Kildare.

The BASF Group comprises more than 160 subsidiaries and joint ventures and operates production sites in 41 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and South America. The original station consisted of one 12.5 MW steam turbine that was originally purchased for a power station at Portarlington but instead used at North Wall. It is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. In 1947, the ESB, needing ever more generation capacity, built the North Wall station on a 7.5 acre (30,000 m²) site in Dublin's industrial Port area on the North side of the River Liffey on the site of an old oil refinery. Today, the four letters are a registered trademark. The process was greatly helped in 1955 by the Electricity Supply Amendment Act, 1955. BASF originally stood for Badische Anilin- & Soda–Fabrik (Baden Aniline and Soda Factory). The Rural Electrification Scheme has been described as "the Quiet Revolution" because of the major socio-economic change it brought about.

BASF AG is a German chemical company. Between 1946 and 1979, the ESB connected in excess of 420,000 customers in rural Ireland. With Ireland's towns and cities benefiting from electricity, the new government pushed the idea of Rural Electrification. Many of these plants are still in operation — however their combined capacity falls far short of Ireland's modern needs. All these new plants were completed by 1949, and together harnessed approximately 75% of Ireland's inland water power potential.

The plans called for stations at Poulaphouca, Golden Falls, Leixlip (all in Leinster), Clady, Cliff and Cathleen's Fall (between Belleek and Ballyshannon in County Donegal), Carrigadrohid and Inniscarra (in County Cork). By 1937, plans were being finalised for the construction of several more hydro-electric plants. The scheme was Ireland's first electricity plant - and at the time, it was believed that it would meet the total energy demands of Ireland, which proved to be an erroneus judgement. The ESB was established by the fledgling Irish Free State government under the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1927 to manage Ireland's electricity supply after the successful Shannon Scheme at Ardnacrusha.

. The ESB currently has three interconnectors with Northern Ireland Electricity and the Irish Government has recently approved the construction of a subsea East-West Interconnector between Ireland and Wales. The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) (Bord Soláthair an Leictreachais in Irish), sometimes called ESB Ireland to differentiate it from US utilities, is responsible for generating most of the electricity in the Republic of Ireland.