ENW: Final 1,000 customers into fifth day without power

Electricity North West (ENW) is still working to reconnect the final 1,000 customers left without power in Cumbria after the weekend’s storms, and has warned that private electricians and electricity meter replacements are likely to be needed by many.

Last night ENW engineers had completed repair work on the larger substations, many accessible only by boat, and are now turning their focus on repairing damage to smaller substations at street-level which feed power directly into homes. This work will be largely completed today, the company said.

ENW will also be going house-to-house to check on equipment throughout today. However the company has warned that “most properties” are also likely to need private electricians to carry out additional checks on internal wiring and some properties will also require a new electricity meter to be installed.

ENW incident manager Steve Cox said the engineer teams are working “incredibly hard” although “it may look like progress is slow”.

ENW is coordinating with the big six energy companies so the suppliers can replace meters if required. The efforts however are being hampered by access issues caused by residents leaving the area due to the flooding.

Cox said: “This is an incredibly complicated coordination exercise which includes needing access to people’s homes – many of whom have understandably left the area – and we’re working as hard as we can to restore power to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.”

Elsewhere in Lancaster “a large number of homes and businesses” remain on generators, many of which have been lent by other network companies through the mutual aid agreement, as repair work continues on the main substation.

Although ENW brought the substation, damaged by storm Desmond on Saturday night, back online yesterday the substation is still operating at reduced capacity while further repair work is completed.