No compensation will be paid out for Storm Éowyn power cuts

The NI Executive has been told that there is currently no existing route to make payments to customers who were affected by the storm.

Following disruption and damage caused by Storm Éowyn on 24 of January, a working group involving the Department for the Economy, NIE Networks, and the Utility Regulator, was established to consider compensation payments for electricity customers most affected by power outages.

The working group was established at the request of the Executive to consider options where compensation payments would be recovered through customer electricity bills.

It has now updated the Executive of its findings that there is currently no existing route to make payments to customers.

A Department for the Economy spokesperson said: “NIE Networks has applied a severe weather exemption provided for in legislation under which customers can apply for compensation if they have been off electricity supply. The working group concluded that any other options involving recovery of payments from network charges would require legal or regulatory modifications which cannot be applied retrospectively for those customers impacted by Storm Éowyn.

“If NIE Networks was to voluntarily decline to apply the severe weather exemption, customers would pay 50% of the cost of compensation through their electricity bills next year and NIE shareholders would have to agree to bear the rest. No other electricity company shareholders in Britain or Ireland have been asked to bear the cost of compensation for Storm Éowyn which was an unprecedented weather event and NIE was not at fault for the disruption caused by the storm.”

The spokesperson added: “All bodies involved in the response to Storm Éowyn will be considering lessons learned and the need to consider appropriate and affordable measures to strengthen resilience to reduce the impact of future severe weather events.”