ESB asked to introduce contingency plans following Achill power cut

ESB asked to introduce contingency plans following Achill power cut


Anton McNulty
antonmcnulty@mayonews.ie

The ESB have been asked to ensure a contingency plan is in place in the event of a major electricity disruption in the future after a major power cut occurred on the island on Friday.
The island of Achill was left without power for over 12 hours on Friday after a major fault at the entrance to the island cut off approximately 2,300 customers. Crews from ESB Networks were on the ground early on Friday morning trying to identify the fault and restore power after electricity was cut off at around 5am.
As a result of the power shortage, there were major disruptions on the island with a number of national schools forced to close early because of the lack of heating and post offices were also affected while some shops and restaurants also had to close.
The ESB identified the fault to an underground cable on the mainland side of the Michael Davitt Bridge at approximately 12 noon and power was eventually restored just after 7pm.
Local councillor MicheΡl McNamara told The Mayo News that he was in contact with ESB throughout Friday and said that once the problem was identified they were prompt in getting the power restored.
However he said because many people had no idea when the power was likely to be restored and there were rumours there would be no electricity for the weekend. He called on the ESB to have a contingency plan in place in the future to ensure the ESB message is related to the public.

No heating
“It was an exceptionally cold day on Friday and a number of old people were left without heating because they have electric heating. Unfortunately the ESB message was not getting out to many of the public because many radios were not working unless they were battery operated.
“This was a major fault which caused major disruptions to the island and I would ask the ESB to have a contingency plan in place to let people know how long they expect the power to be off for. My phone was hopping on Friday from people wondering what was happening and when the power would be back,” he said.

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