Power restored to customers after high winds damage network

Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for the region's power network across Yorkshire and the North East, completed vital repairs early today (Thursday 12 January) and restored power to the nine remaining customers affected by Wednesday's gale force winds.
Gale force winds caused disruption to the power network.Gale force winds caused disruption to the power network.
Gale force winds caused disruption to the power network.

The electricity distributor successfully restored power for customers in Northumberland by switching electricity supplies, where possible, through alternative routes on its network

Hundreds of engineers also worked day and night to repair the damage caused by the gale force winds and trees and debris hitting its overhead network.

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With Met Office warnings for further severe weather over the coming days the electricity distributor is continuing to closely monitor the forecast.

The company has also ensured that it has additional people and resources ready should the weather cause further damage to the region’s power network and disrupt customers’ supplies.

Rod Gardner, Northern Powergrid’s head of network operations, said: “Wednesday’s weather brought wind speeds of up to 70mph in parts of Tyne and Wear, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire which caused damage to the electricity network and presented us with challenging working conditions.

“Everyone across our business worked together with professionalism and dedication to ensure all 41,900 of our customers had their power restored safely and as quickly as possible with the majority of our customers having their power restored throughout the morning.

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“We thank our customers for their understanding and patience whilst we worked to repair the damage caused by the weather.”

The company is reminding customers that its website, northernpowergrid.com, has an easy-to-use power cut map and reporting service which customers can use to log a power cut, get real-time updates and find advice about what to do in a power cut.