Northern Powergrid sends support to those impacted by Storm Éowyn in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

Northern Powergrid has organised for a team of 126 people, including its own people and the company’s contractors, to support a joint major industry response after Storm Éowyn devastated Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland’s electricity networks causing power cuts for more than 1 million customers.

The team, which includes 86 linespersons, 19 drivers and plant vehicles, authorised electricity engineers and operational managers travelled as soon as they could this week, after successfully getting the power back on for more than 150,000 of Northern Powergrid’s customers who had also been affected by the storm.

Once the teams landed, they were fully briefed by their colleagues at Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) and ESB Networks and headed into communities to help carry out necessary repairs to get customers who were still without power due to the storm’s damage back on supply.

Northern Powergrid’s field operations team led the support response, and it involved working in partnership with government departments, Port Authorities and ferry operators to ensures its teams could travel as soon as possible to boost the response to help rebuild the two countries’ power networks.

The support is part of NEWSAC - a vital UK energy industry mutual aid agreement. The agreement, which all UK electricity distribution companies have signed up to, provides additional strength to teams so power can be restored as soon as possible, and customers can be supported when networks are damaged by severe weather.

Steve McDonald, Northern Powergrid’s interim Director of Field Operations, said: “Storm Éowyn was a very large storm that significantly impacted our own network and customers, but it did not cause the scale of devastation that our industry colleagues in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have faced.

“On Tuesday, we successfully got the power back on to our few remaining customers affected by the storm and strong winds on Sunday afternoon that also impacted our network, then we immediately turned our attention to how we could help those customers still impacted elsewhere in the UK and Ireland.

 “We are proud to play our part to support NIE and ESB Networks' customers who are still without power, and I am grateful to our teams who have volunteered to help having already worked hard across the weekend.”

*Contractors supporting Northern Powergrid’s response include Kelbray, Integrated Utilities Services (IUS) and Freedom.