DNOs brace for Storm Eunice after Met Office issues red alert

Distribution network operators (DNOs) are bracing themselves for more extreme weather after reconnecting tens of thousands of homes following Storm Dudley.

The Met Office sent out a rare red weather alert on Thursday (17 February), warning that exposed areas could see gusts of more than 90mph as Storm Eunice hits the UK early on Friday morning.

The last time the Met Office issued such an alert was for Storm Arwen in November, which inflicted widespread damage to electricity networks and left more than a million homes with power.

Just under 50,000 homes were disconnected over Wednesday night as Storm Dudley battered the UK with heavy rains and wind of over 70mph.

The Energy Networks Association (ENA) confirmed that, as of Thursday morning, most networks were operating as usual and power had been restored to the majority of properties.

Northern Powergrid said more than 20,000 of its customers were affected by Storm Dudley but all have since been reconnected.

Louise Lowes, head of customer services, said: “We are pleased to say that over 20,000 of our customers have been reconnected following the impact of Storm Dudley on our customers’ power supplies. We are grateful to the teams of people who have supported all those affected.”

As of 11am on Thursday, Electricity North West said it had restored power to around 10,300 properties – 94% of those affected – and was working to reconnect the last 167.

Stephanie Trubshaw, Electricity North West’s customer director, said engineers had been dealing with challenging conditions including fallen trees on overhead power lines.

Trubshaw said she expected another “tough couple of days” for the region as Storm Eunice hits the UK.

Ross Easton, director of external affairs at the ENA said: “The energy networks have been in a state of preparedness since the Met Office issued their first weather warning earlier this week.

“We saw a quick response to Storm Dudley and network companies are now moving teams and equipment to strategic locations, ready to respond to Storm Eunice if needed. We are contacting customers in vulnerable situations to ensure they’re aware of the warnings in place and informed about what to do.”

Water companies operating in the north of England, which experienced the brunt of Storm Dudley, told Utility Week that their preparations meant customers did not experience supply interruptions.

In anticipation of power outages, Northumbrian Water switched its sites to operate on generators and teams visited reservoirs to check water levels. The company said it has bolstered its preparedness plan which included working with emergency services, local authorities and Northern Powergrid to provide joined up support for customers.

Having gotten through Storm Dudley without impact to customers, Northumbrian had been repeating the preparations ahead of Storm Eunice.

UK Power Networks has been readying additional engineers, damage assessment teams and call centre staff who will remain on standby.

The DNO has also invested in remote control technology which allows engineers to fix some power cuts quickly without visiting damaged sites. More than 100 engineering teams will be on duty.

Ian Cameron, head of customer services and innovation at UK Power Networks, said: “This storm comes hot on the heels of Storm Dudley where we managed to get power supplies restored the same night. Based on the forecasts we anticipate that Eunice has the potential to cause significant damage to electricity networks so we are ready with extra resources on duty.

“We understand how difficult it is to be without electricity especially during cold weather and will be working to restore supplies as quickly as is safely possible.”

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has also been enacting its resilience plans by both increasing and moving additional resources to key locations in anticipation of any potential damage, as well as working with local resilience partners to aid preparations and co-ordinate any welfare requirements.

SSEN has sent “warn and inform” texts to over 300,000 of its Priority Service Register customers who might need extra support.

Richard Gough, director of distribution system operations at SSEN, said that his team had been monitoring Storm Eunice for a number of days, including tracking the predicted path and intensity of the storm as it reaches landfall.

He added: “Although it is forecast to be relatively short in duration, the wind gusts associated with the weather front are significant and widespread disruption to power supplies is likely across our operating region.

“We’d like to reassure our customers that we are making every preparation for the arrival of this significant weather front and we have allocated teams of engineers to locations expected to experience the worst of the weather conditions, to ensure we are ready to respond as soon as it’s safe to do so.”

The latest extreme weather comes just three months after Storm Arwen caused more damage on the electricity network than any other storm in the last 15 years. DNOs were criticised for failing to reconnect several thousand customer for more than a week as well as poor communication, in particular, inaccurate estimates for restoration times.

The ENA is now working closely with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Ofgem on their respective reviews into networks’ response to Storm Arwen.

On Thursday, Ofgem published its interim report outlining its early findings and initial recommendations. They included the suggestion that distribution network operators consider extending their North East West South Consortium resource-sharing agreement to cover call centre staff after Northern Powergrid saw customers abandon 43% calls to the DNO between the arrival of the storm on 26 November and the following Saturday (3 December) due to long wait times.