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Ireland’s electricity system to be bolstered as storms become 'more regular and more destructive'

NEW measures will be put in place to make Ireland’s electricity system more resilient as the number of storms to hit the nation and their severity continues to increase.

Ireland’s Environment Minister Darragh O'Brien has announced plans to “enhance the electricity grid and to increase its resilience” once the cleanup after Storm Éowyn is complete.

Nearly 800,000 homes, farms and businesses lost power when the storm hit in the early hours of January 24, bringing record wind speeds of up to 183km/h in some areas.

A mammoth cleanup operation began the following day with the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) mobilising all its resources, with the help of additional crews from the UK and countries across the EU, to get the country back up and running again.

Broadband repair crews at work in the The Glebe, County Longford following Storm Éowyn

At the start of this week some 45,000 ESB Networks customers remained without power and Ireland’s National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) confirmed the nation was receiving additional support from “skilled technicians from counterparts in Austria, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands and Norway” to get the job done.

As of today there are 18,000 properties still without power.

Minister O’Brien has confirmed today that he has requested a number of actions be taken, once the initial storm response has been completed, to make the country’s power system more resilient for the future.

“These measures include an enhanced Winter 2025 Grid Resilience Plan,” he said.

“This will be developed within the next month, and will be implemented by ESB Networks between March and October to enhance the resilience of the grid in the most vulnerable locations for the upcoming winter,” Mr O’Brien explained.

“The ESB have identified a number of initial actions, including increasing the stock holding of spare parts for the electricity network, creating forestry corridors to protect overhead line corridors, and enhancing already strong relationships with partners across Europe” to support this, he added.

Some 800,000 properties were left without power following Storm Éowyn

The Minister also confirmed that he will work with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Public Expenditure to support an increase in the ESB workforce “in order to protect citizens”.

Speaking about the plans, Mr O’Brien said: "These storms are becoming more regular and more destructive and there is a need to take immediate action to ensure that we increase the resilience of the electricity system, and therefore of the country, to this type of event.

“I met with representatives from the CRU and ESB Networks, to discuss the Storm Éowyn response and the impact on customers,” he added.

“A number of actions emerged from these discussions and I have outlined these actions in a memo to government, which has been considered today.

"While the actions I set out are crucial to increasing the resilience of the electricity system in the wake of Storm Éowyn, my priority, and the priority for government, has been and remains to be ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our citizens – by assisting the restoration of power to all as quickly and as safely as possible, and to ensure that all vulnerable customers are looked after in whatever manner is needed.

"As of this afternoon, 18,000 customers remain without power, while ESB Networks have restored power to 750,000 customers.

“I know that some customers are without power for nearly two weeks in some areas, due to the scale of the damage to the electricity grid.

“Every effort is being made to restore electricity to the remaining customers as soon as possible.

"I have and will continue to engage directly with ESB Networks to ensure that they have the full support of the State to respond to the storm.”

Regarding those who remain without electricity, Mr O’Brien said the Government is “providing support to vulnerable individuals who are without power and will continue to do so”.

“I know that colleagues in ESB Networks are working with An Garda Síochána, the HSE and other departments and agencies to ensure every vulnerable customer gets assistance,” he added.

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