01 August 2006 00:00 27,000 customers restored to power within 18 hours after vandals set fire to north Birmingham substation

Central Networks engineers worked around the clock yesterday (MON 31 JULY) to restore 27,000 customers left without power after vandals broke into a substation in Nechells, north Birmingham, and set fire to electricity cables.

Central Networks, the electricity distribution company for central England, reported an interruption of supply to customers at just before midnight on Sunday 30th July.

Engineers worked closely with the West Midlands Fire Service and the West Midlands Police to quickly assess the damage and return power to homes and business in Nechells, Aston, Washwood Heath, Ward End and Erdington throughout the day.

Jim Lightfoot, Customer and Network Operations Director at Central Networks, said: “Our engineers and office-based staff have done a fantastic job working around the clock to get power back to thousands of customers across the city.

“We managed to get the power back on to the vast majority of our customers by lunchtime yesterday and our engineers didn’t stop until the final homes were restored at just after 6pm yesterday.

“Our substation was severely damaged by this irresponsible act of vandalism and I have nothing but praise for our team who worked extremely hard in difficult conditions.”

Central Networks, which is part of E.ON UK, will continue to work with the police and fire service as they proceed with their investigations. Anyone with information is asked to call 0845 113 5000 and ask for officers at Queens Road police station.

“Breaking into a substation is a very dangerous thing to do and, in addition to inconveniencing thousands of people throughout the area, these vandals were risking serious injury and put themselves at serious risk,” said Jim.

Today [TUE 1 AUG] only a handful of business customers remain without electricity and engineers will continue to repair the damaged equipment to get the last customers back on supply.

Jim said: “We’re in contact with our business customers and our engineers will continue to work hard to get power back as soon as they can.”

Ends

Notes to editors:
• Central Networks is the new name for Midlands Electricity and East Midlands Electricity. The company brings power to 4.9 million customers across Central England through 133,000km of underground and overhead cables – enough to go round the Earth almost four times – and via almost 97,000 substations;
• Central Networks covers an area from the Peak District in the north to parts of Bristol in the south, and from the Welsh Borders to the Lincolnshire Coast.

For further information contact:
Jamee Majid on 024 7642 5011
Rebecca Middleton 024 7642 5779
Out of hours please call 024 7642 4000 and ask to speak to the duty press officer.

A selection of Central Networks pictures is available free of charge to the media by registering at www.newscast.co.uk and looking under Distribution