The staff have been redeployed from their usual locations - from Plymouth to Newcastle - to work in other areas of the country, where support has been needed the most. This includes around 200 people who have been sent to support around 1,000 field staff already deployed by NIE Networks across Northern Ireland.
While the majority of customers in Scotland who lost power when Storm Éowyn damaged equipment have now been reconnected, 43,000 customers in Northern Ireland were without power as of 9am this morning (Tuesday 28 January). This is due to extensive damage, with the island of Ireland seeing one of its worst storms in decades.
A total of 242,000 properties in Northern Ireland have already been reconnected and teams are working around-the-clock to support and reconnect the remaining customers. More than 620,000 customers have also been reconnected in Scotland, England and Wales.
Energy Networks Association (ENA), which represents electricity network companies, coordinates mutual aid after severe weather disruption, similar to the pooling of emergency service resources in a major incident. This includes transferring people, equipment and supplies between network operators.
Lawrence Slade, Chief Executive of Energy Networks Association, said:
"As network operators reconnect customers, teams and equipment are being ‘freed up’ and sent from Scotland, England and Wales to Northern Ireland to support the reconnection efforts there. This is in addition to more than 1,000 staff based locally at NIE Networks who have been working around the clock since the storm hit.
"Nearly 200 staff have been redeployed to Northern Ireland to date, in addition to helicopters, drones, generators and replacement parts from stockpiles in other parts of the UK.
"More people and equipment are expected to be sent over today and later this week. Everyone is working flat out to support and reconnect customers. This is a huge team effort from every network operator across the UK, Ireland and further afield."
Notes to editor
Photos:
- Storm-Eowyn-Ferry: National Grid vans line up for the ferry en route to to provide mutual aid support. Photo credit: National Grid/ENA.
- Storm-Eowyn-NIE-1: NIE Networks engineers work to fix damage. Photo credit: NIE Networks/ENA.
- 8901-Eowyn-pic: National Grid vans line up to provide mutual aid support. Photo credit: National Grid/ENA.
- 89190-Eowyn4: Engineers fixing damage caused by the storm. Photo credit: National Grid/ENA.
- 54855-Eowyn-6: Engineers fixing damage caused by the storm. Photo credit: National Grid/ENA.
About us
Energy Networks Association (ENA) is the industry body representing the energy networks. Our members include every major electricity network operator in the UK. The electricity networks are at the heart of the energy transition. They directly employ more than 26,000 people in the UK, including 1,500 apprentices. They are spending and investing £33bn in our electricity grids over the coming years, to ensure safe, reliable and secure energy supplies for the millions of homes and businesses reliant on power every day.
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