Energy networks have urged the thousands of households still without power following Storm Arwen to seek alternative accommodation if possible, warning that some individual homes or groups houses may not be reconnected until after Tuesday due to localised faults.
The Energy Networks Association (ENA) said supplies had been restored to more than 90% of affected customers by 5pm on Monday evening (29 November) but more than 66,000 remained disconnected as engineers battled the elements to repair severe damage to overhead power lines.
The trade body said the worst hit areas were in Scotland and the north east of England, where faults were continuing to be discovered.
Helicopter and drone surveys have been used help to assess the scale of the problem in hard-to-reach areas, with one patrol finding nearly 100 electrical poles snapped and in need of replacement. The ENA said this aerial vantage has proved in invaluable after roads were blocked by snow and debris, making access for engineering teams extremely hazardous.
Thousands of engineers have been working to restore power supplies, with additional teams drafted in from across the country, including the Northern Ireland and the South East of England.
Speaking to Utility Week on Monday evening, Northern Powergrid head of regulation and strategy Jim Cardwell said Arwen was one of the most damaging storms to hit its network in the last two decades: “Top gusts were almost 100 miles per hour, particularly in the Northumberland and the high parts of West Yorkshire. As a result of that, we lost power to 240,000 of our customers.
“We’ve got over 200,000 back on, largely through switching operations and some repairs as well, but we’ve still got another 30,000 that we’re still working on at the moment.”
Cardwell said: “We’ve got a team of about 2,000 people working on this at the moment, in terms of people in the field, support staff helping. We’ve got a large number of people in our contact centre. We’ve clearly stopped all planned work and all non-urgent work.”
He continued: “What we’ve seen is extensive damage to overhead wires networks and we’re focussing on temporary fixes, be that sectionalising of our circuits to get people on alternative feeding arrangements where we can, or smaller repairs that we can do, with an eye then to go back once our customers have got their power back on and do permanent repair.
“And it will take many weeks to do those permanent repairs, bearing in mind the scale of the damage.”
Picture: Duddon Bridge in Cumbria
When asked when power supplies would be restored to all of their customers, Cardwell said: “It’s very difficult to tell.”
He said work was made more difficult by the fact winds “kept blowing for some time. It started on Friday evening but in many areas, it kept blowing through Saturday so a real issue for us was when it was safe to climb.”
“The other issue we have with estimating when everyone can get back on is that often there are faults that only become apparent when certain circuits are energized so you get a section of network energised and then you find another damage point in a bit of network behind it,” he added.
“We’re not yet at a stage where we can say when the low voltage and the individual services that connect individual customers will be back on because we’re still working through the high voltage faults at the moment.”
Cardwell thanked customers for their patience during the circumstances, acknowledging that the weather has been very cold: “It’s really about getting those supplies back on as quickly as we possibly can whilst also making sure we prioritise the contact with our vulnerable customers to help them as well.
“We’re working with the British Red Cross. We’ve got customer support vehicles out there. We’ve got a dedicated team helping out vulnerable customers, particularly focussing on those people who are living along, maybe more frail, don’t have the support network around them – the friends, family or neighbours – to help them out.”
He also thanked other network operators for their assistance, in particular, UK Power Networks, Northern Ireland and National Grid Electricity Transmission, which he said sent around 100 staff members to help with their efforts.