With winds of up to 86mph in some areas, our engineers and field teams worked around the clock in challenging conditions to repair the damage to our network caused by Storm Barra.
The extreme weather and windborne debris caused some issues on our network but we are pleased to confirm that the 19,283 customers who experienced a power cut as a result of Storm Barra had their power restored in under 12 hours.
Our customer contact centre colleagues handled 7,666 calls during the storm, and also sent more than 14,000 proactive messages to our customers to provide updates.
We prioritised our most vulnerable customers throughout Storm Barra, contacting them to offer additional support – particularly those who are medically dependent on an electricity supply. We also worked with local resilience forums and priority services partners to provide extra support services, offering hot food, drinks and hotel accommodation to anyone who needed them.
Frank Mitchell, Chief Executive of SP Energy Networks, said: “We are extremely grateful to all our customers who have been affected by Storm Barra for their patience as our engineers made repairs to the network in very difficult weather conditions this week.
“Coming so soon after Storm Arwen, which saw the worst weather conditions to have impacted our network in over 25 years, I would also like to thank our teams who were quickly mobilised once again to the areas we expected would be most affected by Storm Barra. This enabled us to act quickly and safely in order to restore power to impacted customers.
“In addition to the teams involved in our direct field response, our customer service teams have also played a key role by communicating with and providing reassurance to our customers who were affected by Storm Barra.”
When our network is impacted by severe weather conditions, it’s vital we continue to prioritise our most vulnerable customers. That's why we have a Priority Services Register for anyone who may need more support in the event of a power cut. If you or anyone you live with is vulnerable, we'd encourage you to register.
Click here to find out more about our Priority Services Register.