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French crews arrive to assist with power restoration after storm
A team of 60 technicians from French power provider Enedis has arrived in Ireland to assist in the repair of power outages following Storm Darragh.
Around 15,000 homes, farms and businesses remain without electricity tonight, while around 380,000 other customers have had their service restored since Saturday morning.
The support crews travelled on a ferry from Cherbourg, which arrived at Rosslare Europort in Co Wexford as part of a longstanding cooperation agreement between Ireland and France.
In the aftermath of Storm Ophelia in 2017, Enedis also provided support to ESB Networks.
Technicians and support staff from the ESB travelled to France following Storm Ciarán last November to assist in restoring power to more than one million customers in Brittany and Normandy.
The 60 personnel from Enedis will receive an induction and safety briefing in Portlaoise before travelling to Athlone, from where they will be deployed to the worst impacted areas in the North West, Midlands and South East.
ESB Networks Delivery Manager, Cormac Collins, said the French crews will be "out on the ground".
"You will probably see them up around the midlands, out on the ground, doing repairs the same as our own crews and the same as our own contracting partners. They'll just be falling in, doing the same repairs as ourselves."
Minister of State James Browne welcomed the French crew to Ireland and said it was part of a "long-standing cooperation agreement" between electricity network operators.
"Last year, ESB Networks travelled to France to assist in the aftermath of Storm Ciarán so it is great to see this reciprocated," he said.
Supply was cut to 395,000 homes, farms and businesses due to the impact of the high winds on Friday night and Saturday morning.
The storm caused "widespread and extensive damage to electricity infrastructure across the country".
ESB Delivery Manager Cormac Collins said Storm Darragh was "one of the most severe storms we have received in the last number of years".
Mr Collins said the crews and contractors are "really into the difficult stage of the storm restoration now".
"As the crews go out now, they can spend the day working, but maybe only get one, two or maybe five or ten customers restored, whereas previously, those numbers have been quite bigger."
Mr Collins said the crews will be working to repair faults "over the coming days and probably up to the end of the week."
"Every effort is being made. There's almost 4,000 people in ESB Networks. They're all working on this. We have over 1,000 of our contracting partners working on this."
"So all hands are on deck, but yes, it can take a number of days, up towards the end of the week, and those updates will be given on a daily basis as we make progress," he added.
Earlier, ESB said that some customers could be without supply for "approximately a week" because of the scale and severity of the damage in places.
ESB Networks Regional Manager Brian Tapley said calls are prioritised with "extreme danger calls" carried out first.
"We are now into a situation where the same level of work needs to be done on a fault, but it may only restore supply to one customer or maybe five or ten customers, so we're into the difficult phase of the storm restoration," he said.
He compared the impact of the storm to Storm Ophelia in 2017, but that Storm Darragh hit the entire country.
Mr Tapley warned people to treat fallen conductors as if they are live and not to approach them.
