We have three main priorities when we respond to severe weather events.
- Public safety
We send our teams to all locations where we know that a wire is on or close to the ground, which is usually because a tree has fallen and pulled the wires down with it. Our team will disconnect the wire so that it is not causing an electrical danger to members of the public. We then arrange the materials and staff to carry out permanent repairs. - Providing information
We provide those who have lost power the most accurate information we have so they can make reasonable plans for the period they expect to be without power. We rely on members of the public to call us with information about the location of the damage so that we can make this information available as quickly as possible. - Restoring power
We send all available people, materials and machinery to make the network safe and restore power.- Our first priority is to send crews to fix damage which has resulted in a loss of power to critical national infrastructure (for example, hospitals, airports, and water pumping and treatment sites)
- We then prioritise fixing damage to restore power to the largest number of homes and businesses
- We check the Medical Care Register to make sure that those who have the greatest need for electricity get it back as quickly as possible
- We work methodically through each location where damage has been caused to the network and safely restore power to everyone as quickly as possible.
For each fault, the individual circumstances and engineering requirements need to be considered to decide the priority.
We do all that we can to restore power to every home, farm and business as quickly as it is safe to do so.