A sustained period of severe weather events led to power outages in parts of County Clare in January, ESB Networks has confirmed.At one stage on Saturday 17 January, 5,000 of the 40,000 customers in Clare were without supply. The ESB was responding to a representation by Minister of State and local T.D. Tony Killeen on behalf of residents at Ballinalacken, Lisdoonvarna who were without power for over 24 hours.
According to Minister Killeen, “Residents had expressed concern to me regarding the period of time taken to restore power supplies to some 250 customers in the Ballinalacken area. I raised their concern with the ESB who have linked the outages to a sustained 24 hour period of severe weather events in the North Clare area.”
“I have been informed by ESB Networks that high winds and lightning on Saturday 17 January resulted in widespread blackouts throughout the County, including Ballinalacken. Unlike other parts of Clare, Ballinalacken was again affected by a lightning storm on Sunday 18 January. This further compounded the problems facing ESB engineers who were working to restore power to the affected homes,” added minister Killeen.
In a letter to Minister Killeen, the ESB Area Manager stated, “While I must apologise, on behalf of ESB Networks for the outage, no network can be guaranteed to withstand very severe weather. I am not aware of any permanent faults at Ballinalacken, but I will keep fault history in the area under review.” The Area Manager continued, “I want to reassure all customers in North Clare that ESB Networks are committed to supplying electricity to the very highest continuity standards. Every effort is made to avoid any outages, and to minimise the duration of all unavoidable outages.”
