This article is from page 3 of the 2011-08-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
AN ESTIMATED 1,500 homes and businesses were affected by two major power outages in Ennis on Thursday. Shops were plunged into darkness while many banks were forced to close early due to repeated interruptions to the town’s power supply.
Restaurants and pubs were also affected, with some premises shutting up in the middle of the day. Some businesses, which had been without power since the morning, did not get supply back until near midnight.
In a statement, the ESB explained that the outages occurred as a result of cable faults in the town centre.
A spokesperson stated, “At 11am, a cable fault occurred affecting approximately 1,000 customers. ESB network crews were immediately dispatched and generators were provided at 5pm to ensure continuity of supply to the majority of affected customers while repair work was being carried out to the damaged cable. It was not possible to restore power to the remaining customers until midnight.”
She continued, “In the second case, a cable fault occurred close to Francis Street that led to an outage at 4.15pm. Supply was restored to the affected 500 customers by 6pm.”
Business representatives have called on the ESB to communicate more efficiently with businesses in the event of future outages.
Brian O’Neill, Managing Director of the Rowan Tree Hostel, said the premises were without power from 11.30am on Thursday to 1.30am on Friday.
He said that when the outage struck, he was unable to find out from the ESB when supply would return to normal. He explained, “Fourteen hours without power, it’s a disgrace. We had to make a decision to shut the restaurant. You can’t blame people for what happened but it was not dealt with as efficiently as it could have been. The communications side of it was a disaster.”
Mr O’Neill, who is Vice President of Ennis Chamber of Commerce, said staff at the Rowan Tree restaurant were forced to throw out € 1,500 worth of spoiled food.
He added that the ESB should have provided more information to business owners in Ennis.
He said, “There are enough staff with the ESB. Surely they could have had one person on the ground in Ennis with a list of businesses, updating them on an hourly basis, just as a courtesy.”
A spokeswoman for the ESB said the company was not anticipating any further problems with the supply in Ennis.