The Electricity Regulator, Douglas McIldoon, today said that he has asked one of his consulting engineers to prepare a report on the NIE handling of the 26/27 February snow storm.
Commenting Mr McIldoon said:
“It is clear that NIE’s handling of the storm was significantly better than in 1998, both in terms of communicating directly with customers and the media and in speed of restoration of supply. As in the past, its crews worked heroically in appalling conditions but to much better effect than on previous occasions. However, every storm is different and this one threw up some weaknesses in NIE’s system which caused annoyance to customers. In particular there is a perceived weakness in the call handling system. We now need to find out what worked well and build on it and what failed and fix it.”
The report will be published as a consultation paper for public debate by mid-April 2001.
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please contact Nick Carson on 07711 482807