- Important Public Safety Message: We have been made aware of several instances of potentially very dangerous incidents where members of the public have unknowingly approached fallen electricity infrastructure. Stay safe, stay clear of any fallen lines and report any damage to 1800 372 999
- Storm Éowyn brought unprecedented, widespread and extensive damage to electricity infrastructure resulting in 768,000 customers losing supply on 24 January. As of 5.25pm (Monday), ESB Networks has restored supply to 564,000 homes, farms and businesses – 204,000 customers remain without supply
- Support from Great Britain deployed to worst impacted areas, and further support is set to arrive from electricity network operators in Austria, Finland, Netherlands and France
- We have updated www.PowerCheck.ie with Expected Restoration Times: this shows that by Friday 31 January, the vast majority of those impacted by Storm Éowyn will have had supply restored. After this we expect that the remaining, approximately 100,000 customers, will progressively have their supply restored over the course of next week
Issued: 5.30pm on Monday, 27 January 2025
ESB Networks would like to reinforce this Important Public Safety Message: We have been made aware of several instances of potentially very dangerous incidents where members of the public have unknowingly approached fallen electricity infrastructure. Fallen debris after a storm can prevent people from seeing hidden risks such as wires entangled into trees and branches. If you come across fallen wires or damaged electricity network, never, ever touch or approach these as they are LIVE and extremely dangerous. Please report any damage to electricity infrastructure by calling 1800 372 999.
As of 5.25pm (Monday), ESB Networks has restored supply to 564,000 homes, farms and businesses – 204,000 customers remain without supply, down from a peak of 768,000 on early Friday morning following the unprecedented impact of Storm Éowyn.
To support ESB Networks and partner contactors in their restoration effort post-Storm Éowyn, skilled technicians from counterparts in Great Britain have been deployed to the worst impacted areas, and further support is set to arrive from electricity network operators in Austria, Finland, Netherlands and France over the coming days. Following Storm Darragh in December and other significant weather events like Storm Ophelia in 2017, ESB Networks received support from electricity network operators in Great Britain and Europe.
In addition, ESB Networks crews from the south and east of the country are also being redeployed to the worst impacted areas once restoration in their areas has been completed, while skilled retirees from ESB Networks are also being redrafted to assist.
ESB Networks has published estimated restore times for most of its faults on www.PowerCheck.ie, which are now our most accurate indications based on fault site assessments of when customers can expect to have their power restored. Estimated Restoration Times will continue to be updated as the restoration continues to progress and weather conditions may impact on the restoration work.
We anticipate that the vast majority of customers who lost power during Storm Éowyn will have supply restored by Friday night, 31 January. For the remaining customers, these will progressively have power restored over the course of next week – this could be as many as 100,000 customers.
All crews are continuing to work late into the evening in difficult conditions following Storm Herminia which didn’t cause significant damage to the network but did make power restoration more challenging in places.
We acknowledge the disruption to family and commercial life this causes and thank customers across the country who remain without power for their patience as our crews work to safely restore power.
ENDS/
N.B. Regular updates will continue to be issued.
Notes to editor:
- It is important that any impacted customers who use electrically powered medical devices contact their healthcare professional to make alternative arrangements if necessary.
- We advise customers to sign up for our “Keep me Notified” service for power outages on www.PowerCheck.ie to receive status updates directly. To sign up please enter your Eircode and the mobile number associated with your account.
- We have also been made aware of scam text messages purporting to come from ESB Networks. We ask that customers do not engage directly, do not share any personal information if asked, and block and report the suspicious number if necessary.
How ESB Networks restores power following a storm similar to Storm Éowyn:
Firstly, our crews make safe fallen, low hanging wires and other damage to electricity networks. This may mean that these lines have to be switched out until they can be repaired.
Where possible, we restore supply remotely from our National Distribution Control Centre using alternative power lines where available.
Prior to initiating repairs works, our Network Technicians carry out full assessments of network damage, so that power can be restored systematically and safely.
Crews are initially dispatched to repair lines that will return service to the largest number of customers in the least amount of time. ESB Networks focusses initially on high voltage transmission and medium voltage distribution lines where significant numbers of customers can be restored at once.
The next step is to restore the low voltage network that serves individual homes and smaller groups of customers. Typically, this is a slower process as there can be large numbers of small faults on a line serving a small cluster of customers, often less than ten properties. Each individual repair can be time consuming (clearing fallen trees, debris, broken poles etc) and only restores power to small customer numbers who are served by that low voltage line on the network.