In March 1992
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Brooke announced the first stage of the privatisation of
Northern Ireland Electricity, the province's monopolistic utility company. A major part of this was the sale of
Ballylumford power station in
Northern Ireland to
British Gas for £132 million. This oil-fired power plant provided more than half of the power needs of the 600,000 customers in Northern Ireland. British Gas simultaneously announced its plans to set up Premier Transco to build and operate the
Scotland-Northern Ireland pipeline (SNIP), a natural gas pipeline, to convert Ballylumford to natural gas, and to set up a commercial supply company for natural gas (what would become Phoenix Natural Gas). In 1997
BG Group sold a 24.5% stake in Phoenix to
KeySpan. In early 2001 BG Group sold a further 24.5% to
East Surrey Holdings plc (ESH) for £50 million. In November 2003 ESH purchased Phoenix outright, acquiring the other two shareholders' stakes for a total of £177 million.
Terra Firma Capital Partners completed a protracted acquisition of ESH and its Phoenix subsidiary for £453 million in 2005; Terra Firma had attempted to withdraw its bid for ESH due to a "bitter and long-running dispute with Northern Ireland's energy regulator Douglas McIldoon over Phoenix Natural Gas, which represents more than half of East Surrey's sales." In 2008 Phoenix sold the Belfast Gas Transmission Pipeline system to
Northern Ireland Energy Holdings for £99.3 million. The pipeline carries natural gas from the end of the SNIP to
Larne,
Carrickfergus and across
Belfast Lough to Knocknagoney where it connects with Phoenix's network. Phoenix was obliged to sell the pipeline as part of a licensing agreement with NIAUR. In May 2012
SSE plc's
Airtricity subsidiary purchased Phoenix Supply Limited and Phoenix Energy Limited (its Republic of Ireland supply business) for £19.1 million. Terra Firma sold Phoenix Natural Gas to
Hastings Funds Management in 2013 for £700 million. Hastings Fund Management's international division, renamed Vantage Infrastructure in 2018, manages 50% of Phoenix Natural Gas on behalf of the RBS Group Pension Fund. The remaining 50% stake is owned by the
Utilities Trust of Australia. In December 2015 the Utility Regulator approved a licence extension for Phoenix Natural Gas to develop the natural gas network in 13 new towns in East Down including; Anahilt, Ballygowan, Ballynahinch, Castlewellan, Crossgar, Downpatrick, Dromore, Drumaness, Dundrum, Hillsborough, Newcastle, Saintfield and the Spa. The £60m private investment by the company sees natural gas being made available to an additional 28,000 properties in these areas. Construction commenced in early 2016 with Ballygowan being the first town to connect to the network, and will continue until an estimated completion date of 2022. In May 2023, the company rebranded from Phoenix Natural Gas to Phoenix Energy. The rebrand was to reflect their plans to transition from natural gas to renewable gas solutions, such as hydrogen and biomethane. ==References==