ePower's former director of development wants to increase his stake in the troubled electricity firm.

Mr Paul Browne - who left ePower last month - said he was discussing investment opportunities with a number of international groups who may take an interest in the company controlled by Esat founder Mr Denis O'Brien.

The firm has suffered a number of serious setbacks in recent months and its board is known to have considered abandoning the market altogether.

Mr Browne's departure from the company's day-to-day management in a right-sizing process brought to 15 the number of staff shed since the start of the year.

He said: "The board of ePower has given me sanction to re-market the company. As part of that, this involves me in discussions with international players.

"This would reposition my shareholding in ePower. That would be subject to me taking an attractive package to the board for approval."

Mr Browne would not disclose which groups had expressed interest in taking a stake in ePower.

These are believed to be based in Britain and the US.

It is understood Mr Browne wants to increase his stake to 20-30 per cent from under 10 per cent.

According to sources, this would give him an "influential" position at the board, in contrast to his minority position.

He has acted as part-time consultant to ePower since his departure.

The company is considered a significant player in the partially liberalised power market.

Despite rising demand for power - which could prompt shortages next winter - three large groups have already withdrawn their operations from the market. These include two groups linked to an electricity generation station ePower plans with Ireland Power, a US-owned group. Ireland Power's original partner, Scottish Power, sold its original stake in the project to BP Amoco, which subsequently decided to leave the market.

Crucial to Mr Browne's bid to up his stake in ePower will be his ability to market the stake being sold by BP. If this bid is successful, the power station it plans with Ireland Power would be seen as viable again.

Because the Irish market is relatively small, in-house generation is crucial to the fortunes of a supply business such as ePower.

Its first plan was to build its own plant near Navan, Co Meath, but it failed last year to secure planning permission for that project.

Sources said a deal was not expected for some months yet.