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Back to Press Releases 29 January 2025

Power restored to 635,000 customers impacted by Storm Éowyn

  • Storm Éowyn brought unprecedented, widespread and extensive damage to electricity infrastructure. As of 11.30am (Wednesday), ESB Networks has restored supply to 635,000 homes, farms and businesses – approx. 133,000 customers remain without supply  
  • Important Public Safety Message: Stay safe, stay clear of any fallen lines and report any damage to 1800 372 999      
  • Skilled technicians from Austria, Finland and Great Britain now on the ground in the worst impacted areas while further support is arriving from France this afternoon 
  • If you are in a position to visit www.PowerCheck.ie, ESB Networks has updated Expected Restoration Times  

Issued: 12.25pm on Wednesday, 29 January 2025       

As of 11.30am (Wednesday), ESB Networks has restored supply to 635,000 homes, farms and businesses – approx. 133,000 customers remain without supply, down from a peak of 768,000 following the unprecedented impact of Storm Éowyn.       

Important Public Safety Message: ESB Networks is reinforcing its vital warning around public safety as we are into day six of the restoration of supply following Storm Éowyn. We still have 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 impacted 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.   

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.  

Skilled technicians from counterparts in Austria, Finland and Great Britain are now on the ground in the worst impacted areas. Further support is arriving from France this afternoon, this is in addition to crews due to arrive from the Netherlands over the coming days. They are supporting local ESB Networks crews and partner contactors in the worst impacted areas who have been bolstered by colleagues from the south and east of the country, as well as skilled retirees. Our customer contact centre has also doubled its resources.  

If you are in a position to visit www.PowerCheck.ie, ESB Networks has published estimated restore times for most of its faults, 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.  

We anticipate that the vast majority of customers who lost power during Storm Éowyn will have supply restored by this 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.     

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. 

Photo caption: Storm Éowyn brought unprecedented, widespread and extensive damage to electricity infrastructure nationwide. Pictured are crews from ESB Networks and partner contractors carrying out repair work in some of the most impacted areas of the North West. Stay safe, stay clear of any fallen lines and report any damage to 1800 372 999.    

Notes to editor:          

  1. It is important that any impacted customers who use electrically powered medical devices contact their healthcare professional to make alternative arrangements if necessary.       
  2. 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. 
  3. We have been made aware of dangerous instances as a result of the increase in use of generators. Please see our safety video for generators via this link. 
  4. 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.