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11/10/18 - Irish Water and ESB celebrate Ballyshannon Carnival

 

Irish Water and ESB - Ballyshannon Carnival 2018

IW and ESB Ballyshannon Festival – Irish Water staff,

Siobhan Shiel and Patrick Gallagher with John Drummond

and John Gallagher, ESB presenting to Colaiste Cholmcille

at the Cathleen Falls Hydroelectric Generating Station

‌during the Ballyshannon Festival

 

 

Irish Water and ESB joined forces to celebrate the themes of this year’s Ballyshannon Carnival – Clean Energy and Water Conservation.

 

Workshops for primary and secondary school students took place between September 24 and October 11th  at ESB’s Cathleen Falls hydroelectric plant in Ballyshannon.

 

An interactive presentation from Irish Water on the story of water, which included a series of experiments to demonstrate the processes raw water goes through to make it safe for consumption was given to students.

 

The students were given a tour of the station by the Tours Co-ordinator Joe Drummond. The tour visited the dam, the control room and had a view of the generators in operation. They were given a short history of the station and its construction as well as details of how ESB generates electricity from the water. The station’s turbines were humming at full power during the tours, dispatching 65 million watts of green energy from the Erne to the national grid - enough to power 38,000 homes.

 

As part of ESB’S commitment to fostering the study of STEM subjects, each of the schools were presented with a renewable energy kit so the schools can carry out experiments on hydro, solar and wind energy back in the classroom.  

 

Cathleen Falls at night - IW & ESB Ballyshannon Carnival 2018

Cathleen Falls illuminated at night for the Ballyshannon

Carnival

 

John Gallagher, Plant Manager Donegal Stations, commented that ESB were delighted to be involved with this year’s Carnival with Irish Water. “As two national utilities, we work closely together to provide essential services to every community in Ireland.  Cathleen Falls Generating Station has been a feature on the skyline of Ballyshannon for over 65 years. So all at the station are proud to have played a part in this year’s parade, with the station and the dam illuminated in colour for the parade on Saturday night, 6 October.”

 

Irish Water’s Regional Communications Specialist Siobhan Shiel added: “Irish Water was delighted to have the opportunity to participate in this year’s carnival with another of Ireland’s essential utility providers, ESB. These two utilities provide essential water, wastewater and electricity services to the people of Ireland and this festival provided both organisations a great platform to explain through fun and interactive presentations and experiments why they are so essential to our daily lives.”

 

Irish Water staff in conjunction with An Taisce’s Green Schools department have already embarked on a series of primary and secondary school visits across the North West region as part of Irish Water’s sponsorship with the Green Schools Water Award. The purpose of the visits is to talk to students about the water cycle, water conservation, how much we use and possible water contamination issues.

 

Through educational programmes and workshops during the last academic year, schools in Ireland saved 582 liters of water per person per year, enough water to make 660 million cups of tea. The methods of water conservation include installing water displacement devices in toilets, replacing large sinks and reducing their water pressure.

 

 

ESB Ballyshannon Carnival 2018

ESB Ballyshannon Festival - Tom Moran, Manager Community

Relations and Fisheries with John Gallagher, Plant Manager,

Donegal Stations presenting Scoil Catriona, Ballyshannon with

a renewable energy kit

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