Approximately 55,000 homes, farms and businesses remain without power following extremely strong and gusty winds associated with Storm Darragh over the weekend which caused widespread and extensive damage to the electricity network across the country.
ESB Networks teams have restored power to 340,000 customers impacted by Storm Darragh.
The impact is nationwide but some of the most affected areas are in the north-west, midlands and south-east.
According to ESB Networks, Storm Darragh is similar in impact to Storm Ophelia in 2017, which left 385,000 customers without power at the peak but with more widespread impact across the country.
No power after Storm Darragh
All ESB Networks crews, with extensive support from partner contractors, have been working last night to safely restore power to as many customers as possible in challenging conditions.
Crews from French counterparts Enedis have been sailing overnight and will arrive today (Monday, December 9) to assist with power restoration in the worst impacted areas.
There is longstanding cooperation in place with electricity network operators in Ireland, the UK and France in providing such support.
The majority of customers impacted by Storm Darragh have had their power restored but significant numbers will be without supply for a number of days, according to the utility.
Due to the severity and significant scale of the damage some customers could be without power for approximately a week, ESB Networks has said and assessment of the extent of damage is continuing.
It is important that any impacted customers who use electrically-powered medical devices contact their healthcare professional to make alternative arrangements if necessary.
Given the scale of the damage and the dynamic nature of the event, ESB Networks has said it will continue to update estimated restoration times for customers and will update the PowerCheck website as information is confirmed.
Also, if you come across fallen wires or damaged electricity network, the advice is to 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.
How ESB Networks restores power
- Firstly, 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, ESB Networks crews restore supply remotely from the National Distribution Control Centre using alternative power lines where available;
- Prior to initiating repairs works, 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 focuses 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 10 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.
Water services
Meanwhile, Uisce Éireann is continuing its work to restore water services to customers following the impact of Storm Darragh on water and wastewater services.
Crews have been working across the country to restore water supplies impacted by the storm. Since Saturday (December 7), approximately 40,000 additional customers have had their water supply restored.
However there are a number of locations where it will take longer to restore supply. These are generally areas where ongoing power outages have impacted on treatment plants and network pumping stations.
Current estimates indicate that 35 of Uisce Éireann’s 698 water treatment plants are currently affected due to storm-related issues.
They include the Manorcunningham and Letterkenny areas of Donegal, Carrick-on-Shannon in Co. Leitrim, Longford town, Trim in Co. Meath and parts of north Cork around Kanturk and Newmarket.
In some instances repairs have been complicated by bursts on the network which may take longer to repair.