Mullingar men help Scotland get the lights back on
A three day pummelling by storms Malik and Corrie left thousands of people in Scotland without electricity last week – and among those drafted in to help restore power were crews from ESB Networks, including a number of electricians from Westmeath.
Saturday saw Storm Malik strike, while Corrie ripped through on Sunday and Monday bringing wind gusts in excess of 90mph
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), which serves over 3.8 million customers in the north of Scotland, and central southern England, found itself contending with in excess of 450 high voltage network faults caused by fallen trees and wind-borne debris striking overhead power lines. What the firm described as “complex repairs” were required to restore supply to the 150,000 homes left without power.
An appeal was made to ESB for assistance – something that happens from time to time – and a number of crews travelled over.
“For the past week, ESB Networks crews have been deployed to areas in North East Scotland including parts of North Aberdeen and Perth – several Westmeath locals are part of the crews,” an ESB Networks spokesman confirmed on Friday, adding that the teams were due back on Saturday.
“Using their extensive experience of carrying out restoration works in a similar climate and terrain following major weather events in Ireland, our crews have been repairing parts of the overhead electricity network damaged during the storms,” he said.
The last time crews from ESB Networks travelled over was as recently as December last, in the aftermath of Storm Arwen.
At times too, the traffic has been in this direction: “UK crews including from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks travelled to Ireland to support our response to Storm Ophelia in 2017,” said the spokesperson.
Seamus Berry, ESB Networks Manager, in a social media post shared by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, said that among the areas from which crew had travelled over were Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Laois, Kerry, Dublin and Longford.
Richard Gough, Director of Distribution System Operations at SSEN, said that the damage caused had been catastrophic conditions had been “extremely challenging” for the repair teams: “I would…like to recognise the effort and dedication of SSEN teams and engineers from Distribution Network Operators from across the UK and Ireland who continue to work hard in difficult conditions to restore power safely to communities across the North of Scotland.”