11 January 2005 00:00 Central Networks reveals 135,000 customers affected by weekend gales and warns further high winds on the way
Central Networks has today (TUES) revealed that its engineers returned 135,000 customers to power during the weekend’s storms.
Together with HQ staff, the engineers worked round the clock to ensure all customers – around 55,000 in the East Midlands and 80,000 in the West Midlands – were returned to power by Sunday night.
And the engineers have been out in force around the Central Networks patch again as they carry out permanent repairs to overhead lines damaged as a result of the high winds.
Bob Taylor, Managing Director of Central Networks, said: “Everyone did a magnificent job over the weekend and it’s even more vital that we get those permanent repairs done as quickly as possible because we’re expecting more high winds tonight (TUES) and tomorrow (WED).
“We’ve got teams on standby in case it hits and I can assure all of our customers that we’ll do everything we can to get them back on as quickly and as safely as possible if the forecast winds do cause us problems.”
Customers affected by the weekend’s gales by area:
Area and customers returned to power
Derbyshire : 10,000
Gloucestershire: 17,500
Leicestershire: 2,600
Lincolnshire: 17,000
Northamptonshire: 8,000
Nottinghamshire: 10,500
Staffordshire/Shropshire: 28,000
Warwickshire: 7,000
West Midlands: 7,600
Worcestershire and Herefordshire: 26,500
The company dealt with a total of 615 incidents across Central England – 357 in the West and 258 in the East.
Central Networks owns and operates 48,600km of overhead lines, 84,300km of underground cables, 10,238 pylons and 684,633 poles from the Lincolnshire coast to the Welsh borders and from the Peak District to the outskirts of Bristol.
Ends
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