NIE prepared 'whatever the weather'

NIE crews battled to restore electricity during the severe weather

Northern Ireland's electricity provider NIE has said its network is better prepared than ever to handle the unpredictable winter weather.

The company has been in the firing line in recent years after two major snow storms caused power cuts to 250,000 customers.

In February of this year, a severe snow storm left some customers without power for up to five days.

And in 1998, arctic weather conditions on Boxing Day left much of the province in a black out.

We have been doing a lot of hard work right across the company over the last six months

Michael Skelton NIE

However, a rolling program of upgrading work has been aiming to reduce the risk of black outs.

Refurbishment work was curtailed by the foot-and-mouth crisis earlier this year, but NIE insist the network is better prepared than ever for what winter may throw at it.

A crisis control centre in Craigavon trains staff in how to handle the worst possible situations and Michael Skelton said the company had learnt from past mistakes.

"We felt that during the February snow storm we made significant strides forward compared to that of Boxing Day 1998," he said.

"Learning from that, we have been doing a lot of hard work right across the company over the last six months with a lot of training and exercises and communication to all the people involved in emergencies."

Human error

Much criticism was levied at the way customer reports of power loss were handled during the February crisis.

Over 53,000 customer calls were lost in the system due to human error and the watchdog, Ofreg, said it was expecting improvements.

"Their track record has been poor and I think they will admit that themselves," said Gerry Donnelly.

"But we are aware that they have put a hell of a lot of effort into improving their communications strategy."

However, some customers are leaving nothing to chance this Christmas.

Expecting the worst

Stephen Killen, who lives two miles outside Ballynahinch in County Down, said he was without electricity for five days last February and both he and his neighbours now have generator back up.

"We do see occasionally crews of men out around the hills and along the road repairing poles, replacing poles and cables and whatever else they do," he said.

"There is a bit of a profile of their services in the area, but we just assume every winter that the power is going to be off and that is that."

A storm-free winter would be the best outcome all round.