ESB cut power to Laois homes during Status Orange freeze claims councillor

Electricity was cut by the ESB to Laois homes during a Met Éireann cold weather warning this year, according to a Fine Gael county councillor who is demanding such practices to stop.

Cllr Vivienne Phelan of the Graiguecullen Portarlington Municipal District is criticising ESB Networks for cutting power at the vulnerable time for older people trying to stay warm.

Her motion tabled to the October meeting of Laois County Council, asks the ESB not to carry out power outages for routine maintenance work, during Status Orange or Red cold weather warnings.

"Im my local area in Stradbally last January in the cold spell, Met Éireann had put out an orange weather warning for cold temperatures, and 110 houses got notification that there was going to be routine maintenance works taking place which would result in them not having electricity. 

"That notice went out before the weather warning but I'd have though that in the context of one of the coldest days and nights of the year, that it would have been put aside for another time.

"But no, electricity was cut off. Warnings are more frequent but here in the midlands we are susceptible to cold. People are encouraged to stay home, stay warm and drink hot drinks. I think it's crazy to have a situation where people are paying their electricity bills. We are paying some of the highest electricity bills in the European Union. The least people should be able to expect is to have electricity when it's needed.

"We are not allowing new homes to have chimneys we're turning away from solid fuels.  The least people should be able to do is switch on their heaters, have hot drinks. This has a disproportionate affect on old people who can find it hard to stay warm. 

"Shame on the ESB for going ahead with this type of work when we're having low temperature warnings. I'd like a stop put to it," Cllr Phelan said. MORE BELOW PHOTO

Her party colleague, Cllr Paddy Buggy from Portlaoise Municipal District seconded the motion.

"We have a problem with a lot of the new houses relying purely on electricity. I do think they should have some sort of facility, a wood burning stove or something. That snap last January was outrageous how cold it was. Partly due to the storm people were without electricity for weeks in some cases. 

"Planned outages should be when there is good weather. Unfortunately we are getting more bad weather warnings. I support this motion, it's common sense. When there's cold weather you don't turn off people's power," Cllr Buggy said.

Independent Cllr Ollie Clooney supported the motion, but has experienced the opposite problem.

"We got a warning that the electricity would be gone. We were up at half three in the morning, we did our packing up, it was supposed to go off at 10, it never went off at all, it was on all day. That's the other angle. I was annoyed. I had to get out of my bed that time of the morning and do my work. We are paying first class prices but we're getting zero service," Cllr Clooney said.

Read also: Laois county council running out of housing land in Portlaoise

The Cathaoirleach Cllr Barry Walsh said he fully supports the motion too.

"I hope you will get a good response from the ESB on their plans for the future on that issue," he said.

ESB Networks has given the following response to the Leinster Express / Laois Live.

"ESB Networks carry out planned outages throughout the year for a number of different reasons including for essential public safety and the reliability of electricity supply, and other essential works such as to facilitate new connections.  

"It is likely that this planned outage relates to a programme of network refurbishment work to provide capacity increases on the network in the area. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the works, it wasn’t possible to reschedule.   

"We acknowledge the disruption to family and commercial life this causes, and thank customers for their patience."