23 July 2004 00:00 Central Networks engineers successfully battle against lightning storms

Engineers from Central Networks, the electricity distribution company for the East and West Midlands, battled into the night to restore power to 26,000 customers affected by yesterday¡¦s (THURS) devastating lightning storm.

In the UK as a whole there were just under 10,000 lightning hits ¡V and a staggering 7,377, or 76%, of those came in the East Midlands alone. With the lightning hitting overhead wires and a transformer as it moved across the region.

Bob Taylor, Managing Director of Central Networks, said: ¡§At HQ near East Midlands Airport we have a lightning monitor that allows us to track storm as they approach our patch.

¡§It shows lightning hits as red dots and, by the time storm was at its height, the East Midlands was just a sea of red ¡V you really couldn¡¦t tell where the county boundaries were any more ¡V yet again the East Midlands has proved itself to be the lightning capital of the UK.

¡§The beauty of the lightning monitor is that it allows us to predict where strikes are going to be so we get engineers out into the field and up the poles once it¡¦s safe to do so.

¡§Clearly we can¡¦t have anyone up the poles when there¡¦s a storm but, once it passed, they were able to start work on getting everyone back on power and they did a great job to get tens of thousands of people back on power as quickly as possible.¡¨

The storm first hit the region at around 3.50pm yesterday (THURS) and eventually left Lincolnshire at around 11.20pm.

Ends

Notes to editors:
Customers affected (not at the same time) ¡V
Lincolnshire 6,696
Coventry and Warwickshire 4,497
Derbyshire 117
Leicestershire and Rutland 5,551
Northamptonshire 5,303
Nottinghamshire SouthƒT 4,410

ƒT = Largely on the Leicestershire border

In the East Midlands in 2003 there were 14,000 lightning hits, with 6,500 coming in July.

For further information contact:
Jonathan Smith on 024 7642 5741