More than 25,000 homes, businesses and farms are still without power 12 days after Storm Éowyn.
ESB Networks said on Tuesday morning it has restored power to 738,000 customers since record-breaking Storm Éowyn brought dangerously high winds and gusts of up to 183km/h causing countrywide damage
The utilities provider said “restoration work” is continuing, adding that some customers may see changes to their estimated return of power specifically in areas affected badly by electricity faults including in the west and northwest.
Customers who remain without power will have their supply restored over the course of this week, a statement from ESB Networks said.
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“In some instances, when carrying out restoration work on main lines, customers whose power has been reconnected should be aware that power may have to be disconnected again 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,’ it said.
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Skilled technicians from Austria, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands and Norway are on the ground in the worst affected areas.
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, more than 1,300 support staff are involved in overseeing damage assessment, emergency call management, logistics and network operations.
ESB regional manager Siobhán Wynne said it would be the weekend before power is restored to the remaining 25,000 customers who have been without power since Storm Éowyn 12 days ago.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Ms Wynne said that the worst affected areas are Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Leitrim with Cavan, Longford, Sligo, Monaghan and Donegal also impacted.
“All of our resources continue to work over the weekend and again early this morning with almost 3,000 people working on the ground, including our own crews and crews from different international utilities. And we have additional crews now arriving in the morning from Northern Ireland.
She said while the majority of customers without power will be reconnected in the coming days, some would have to wait until the weekend.
“We are looking to try to get as accurate forecast restoration dates as quickly as possible. We will be working on that again today. And we will update Power Check then with the most up to date information later today,” she said.
ESB Network’s customer contact centre has doubled its resources to accommodate the unprecedented volumes of calls, resulting in shorter call response times throughout the day and night for their customers.
The company said there are still “many faults” on the electricity network and have been made aware of “several instances of potentially very dangerous incidents” where members of the public have unknowingly approached fallen electricity infrastructure, particularly in the worst affected areas of the country.
Following a significant weather event like Storm Éowyn, fallen debris can prevent people from seeing hidden risks such as wires entangled into trees and branches.
In Northern Ireland 400 customers on Monday night were still affected.
NIE Networks said its crews were determined to ensure that everyone affected by the storm gets power back as soon as possible.
They warned customers that they are aware of individuals purporting to be from the electricity supplier. They said that its staff and contractors will always carry identification and have urged members of the public to report any suspicious activity to the PSNI.
Dáil Opposition parties are calling for State supports to be made more readily available along with financial increases to be made available to county councils for preventive weather measures.
Sinn Féin has sought goodwill payments to households hit by a lack of power, adding that this should be funded by energy providers.
The National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) will meet again today to co-ordinate ongoing efforts to restore services.
The Cathaoirleach of Monaghan County Council, where about 800 homes and businesses remain without power, has said that better preparations have to be made to deal with future extreme weather events.
Cllr Paul Gibbons told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that such events were becoming more common.
“We can’t ignore that. But what we can do is prepare better. And some of the things we would be looking at is around tree and hedgerow maintenance, having generators in key infrastructure sites, whether that’s water treatment sites, health centres, community centres,” he said.
He also said power cables may need to go underground in future.
Lynn and David Braniff from Co Monaghan remain without power. They have been told it won’t be restored until Thursday at the earliest.
Ms Braniff said the family was lighting a fire to heat water and if they want to bathe they “throw basins of water at each other”.
Her husband said a generator they have uses five litres of fuel every three hours, so they use it only when needed.
“We’re basically sitting haemorrhaging money at the minute. We don’t have the facilities here to always cook. So you go to a deli. It’s what, €15, €20? You know, you can’t sustain that every day. We’ve already lost a chest freezer full of food out in the shed.
“We’ve lost the contents of our fridge just at this point. You know, the credit cards just go up and up and up and you’re just thinking, this is what we’re having to do just to try to get through day to day,” Ms Braniff said.
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