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ESB NETWORKS LTD

February/March 2014 • www.esb.ie/em

Brewing up a storm

Severe storms over the Christmas and New Year period severely impacted the national electricity networks. Successive wind and lightning storms occurred between December 18th, 2013 and January 6th, 2014. During this period Met Eireann issued severe weather warnings on 13 days, 11 at Level Orange and two at Level Red. To underline the uniqueness, scale and relentless nature of the repeated storms in this period, we had 10,620 individual outages which resulted in 742,753 customer interruptions. While our storm response plan is always ready and we had prepared well for these storms, it is only the effort and dedication of people from right across Networks that makes the real difference.

ESB Networks at a location in Enniscorthy where severe damage was caused

Damage was seen across Cork city

ESB Networks staff during work in Killarney

Significant damage to woodland areas visible in Longford

AS THEY HAVE done in the past our Networks staff showed great professionalism in extremely difficult conditions to restore power in a safe and prompt manner. The fact that they had to do this on a repeated basis - day after day in appalling conditions - shows remarkable energy and commitment to customers and to ESB. Of course, doing this at Christmas time, when we all want to spend time with family and friends, makes it even more praiseworthy.

At the peak of the storms a total of 1,300 Networks personnel were deployed on storm repairs. Staff were deployed to the worst affected areas and a total of 100 crews worked outside of their own territory, many spending several nights away from home. The western half of the country suffered the most severe damage.

AT THE PEAK OF THE STORMS A TOTAL OF 1300 NETWORKS PERSONNEL WERE DEPLOYED ON STORM REPAIRS.

PEAK OF THE STORM

During the period from December 18th to January 6th a total of eight storm days were recorded. The following chart shows the storm days.

The storms reached their highest level of intensity on St Stephens night. During this period Met Eireann issued a red alert, their highest level of warning. By the following morning a total of 85,000 customers were without supply, which was the highest number recorded. The following chart shows the number of customers without supply from 9pm on December 26th until 9pm on December 28th.

Days Exceeding Storm Threshold

The weather also did serious damage in Tullow, Co. Carlow