THE ESB IS continuing to work on bringing power back to its customers – but up to 13,000 homes and businesses will be without power tonight.
Overall, electricity has been restored to over 260,000 homes and businesses.
It is continuing to ask people not to go near fallen lines, a warning which particularly extends to children given that it is the mid term break.
ESB Networks technicians have observed a number of extremely dangerous and worrying incidents where members of the public have put themselves in danger by rolling up broken conductor and either placing it at the bottom of a pole or taking putting it in a nearby ditch.
Some ESB lines have are coated in PVC but are not insulated, it warns.
The areas with the most customers remaining without power are the surrounding areas of: Tralee, Dunmanway, Killarney, Fermoy, Newcastlewest, Tipperary and Enniscorthy.
This evening ESB Networks said it expects that between 12,000 to 13,000 customers will remain without supply overnight.
Resources
ESB crews are supported by colleagues and contractors from Northern Ireland in their work, and will be joined tomorrow morning by additional resources from the UK.
Over the past four days, from Thursday to Sunday, it has had to replace around 1,700 poles, 400km of conductor and 400 transformers.
“We also remind customers who are using generators that they should observe the safety precautions and ensure they do not connect a generator to a socket or distribution board. Doing so will create a feed onto the electricity network and will pose a danger to others including repair crews,” said the ESB.
ESB Networks still has over 5000 faults still to address, and says that over 95 per cent of these are isolated faults, impacting on less than three customers per fault.
Meanwhile, the National Coordination Group is continuing to ask people to be extra vigilant, and check on elderly and vulnerable neighbours in areas which are still without power.
It added:
Met Éireann has advised that the there are no warnings in place. Nonetheless the threat of additional rainfall may top up the already near capacity of our rivers and still poses a risk. The local authorities continue to monitor the position in relation to river levels generally.
Details of restoration times are available at: www.esbpowercheck.ie, and for more information you can also visit @ESBNetworks on Twitter or phone 1850 372 999. Make sure to have your MPRN available.
The ESB emergency line is at 1850 372 999.
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