Ireland’s National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) met again today, Wednesday, February 5, to continue to coordinate efforts to restore power, water, telecommunications, and other services following Storm Éowyn.
Power has been restored to 750,000 homes, farms, schools, and businesses, however, 18,000 customers remain without supply, NECG said on Wednesday.
NECG said that ESB Networks are working towards restoring the majority of these customers over the coming days however, in the areas with the largest number of faults, some customers may see their estimated restoration times change, in some cases, into the weekend.
Estimated restoration times are being continuously updated at PowerCheck.ie.
NECG noted that in some instances, when restoration work is being carried out on main lines, customers whose power has been reconnected may experience some short disruptions to power for very short periods of time to allow neighbours to be reconnected. These interruptions ensure that restoration work can safely take place on the system.
Skilled technicians from counterparts in Austria, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, and Norway are on the ground in the worst impacted areas, NECG said. They are supporting over 2,500 local ESB Networks crews and partner contractors who have been bolstered by colleagues from the south and east of the country, as well as skilled retirees.
In addition to the crews deployed, over 1,300 support staff are involved in overseeing damage assessment, emergency call management, logistics, and network operations.
ESB Networks’ customer contact centre has also doubled its resources, NECG said, to accommodate the unprecedented high volumes of calls, resulting in short call response times throughout the day and night for their customers.
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Meanwhile, NECG said on Wednesday that Uisce Éireann is working to return service to the final few customers without water. Updates on supply updates are available on the Uisce Éireann website, Water.ie, and customers can also contact Uisce Éireann directly on 1800 278 278.
NECG also said on Wednesday that the estimated effect of Storm Éowyn on Ireland’s national telecoms userbase was the largest in Comreg’s recording history.
As of 10 am on Wednesday, 0.6% of fixed service users are without services and 2.08% of mobile service users are experiencing some level of degradation of service.
Repair and restoration work has returned normal services to most customers, NECG said, and several fixed service operator networks have been returned to normal service levels.
NECG added: “That notwithstanding, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications recognises that many areas in the north and west of the country continue to be affected by outages, which have been caused by extensive damage to infrastructure in rural areas.
“Operators of fixed line services have indicated that it may still take a number of weeks to fully restore their services due to the significant damage caused.”
New measures to enhance Ireland's electricity grid and to increase its resilience
Also on Wednesday, TD Darragh O'Brien, Ireland's Minister for Transport and Minister for Environment, Climate, and Communications, announced new measures to enhance Ireland's electricity grid and to increase its resilience.
"These storms are becoming more regular and more destructive and there is a need to take immediate action to ensure that we increase the resilience of the electricity system, and therefore of the country, to this type of event," he said on Wednesday.
"I met with representatives from the CRU and ESB Networks to discuss the Storm Éowyn response and the impact on customers.
"A number of actions emerged from these discussions and I have outlined these actions in a Memo to Government, which has been considered today.
“While the actions I set out are crucial to increasing the resilience of the electricity system in the wake of Storm Éowyn, my priority, and the priority for Government, has been and remains to be ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our citizens – by assisting the restoration of power to all as quickly and as safely as possible, and to ensure that all vulnerable customers are looked after in whatever manner is needed."
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