CONCLUSION
72. We note that, even after the performance
improvements which NIE has put in hand, the company maintains[104]
that it will have to be accepted that:
· outside
the urban centres there will continue to be a very large number
of customers served by rural overhead lines, which will remain
very extensive right across Northern Ireland;
· these overhead line networks will
continue to be vulnerable to damage in hurricane conditions such
as experienced on Boxing Day 1998, leading to loss of supply potentially
to very large numbers of customers;
· in the first 36 hours after such
hurricane damage, the best information that NIE expects to be
able to make available is that there is widespread damage to overhead
line networks, that the process of damage assessment will take
time and that it will not be possible in consequence, in the early
stages, to make accurate estimates of restoration times for individual
customers;
· typically 80-90 per cent of customers
will be reconnected within the first 36 hours,[105]
but there will be some customers who will inevitably remain off-supply
for 4-6 days before they are reached in the restoration process,
and customers need to plan individually on the most pessimistic
assumption;
· in the case of very large numbers
of customers off-supply, communications networks and NIE's call-handling
capability will be heavily stressed, customers will continue to
have great difficulty in getting through to customer service agents
and very many customers will have to rely in the initial stages
on automatic call-messaging and answering services and media broadcasts
for information.
73. Since we took evidence from NIE,
OFFER has published its own report on the experience of Public Electricity Suppliers in Great Britain in responding to storms caused by the same weather system.
We hope that NIE will study this report carefully and the recommendations
that it makes, as many of these may also have potential application
in Northern Ireland.
74. We note that the Regulator plans to publish
very shortly[106]
a comprehensive a report on the lessons to be learned from the
storm We look forward to receiving copies of this report in due
course. We would also like NIE to let us have a comprehensive
progress report at the time that the Government replies to this
Report on the implementation of its plans, on some of which they
have made interim announcements, to minimise the impact of future
severe storms on the electricity distribution system in Northern
Ireland. We would like that report to include a list of al
l outstanding steps to be taken, with a firm timetable attached to each.
104 Ev. p.8 Back
105 According to the NIE storm report (p. 19, Table 10), in the period 26 to 31 December 1998, 89% of customers off-supply as a result of weather-related faults had their supplies restored within 36 hours. Back
106 Q86. Back
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