Checked here just out of curiosity three times today.
Exactly 220V late night, 219V early morning, 218V late evening (cookers running).. doesn't look like the ESB is making a big deal of switching to 230V. They've been using it since 1927 so I doubt they'll be rushing to rip out tens of thousands of pole top transformers scattererd right across the country.
(I'd say the choice was made because Siemens were the only company who made anything like an economic bid and had a pretty standardised system. There was a possibility, given the Irish-American relationship at that time that we could have gone for a US Edison system! Ireland could have been on 110V 60hz not much of an issue for lightblubs but would have made appliences damn expensive though.)
The 230 V spec just means that utilities have to be much more aware of low voltage in 220 V areas and possibily more importantly the UK (& Malta/Cyprus/Gibraltar??) utilities at the very least need to make sure that they don't spike much above 240V. Might just mean we get a cleaner, steadier supply at 220/240.
If anyone wants to take a virtual tour with full specs of some of ESB Ireland's powerplants click here:
http://www.esb.ie/main/about_esb/power_stations.jsp Full quicktime 3D tours.
