Ireland is set to receive 17 generators from the European Union following a request for assistance, according to the European Commission.
The Commission’s own strategic reserve, rescEU, hosted in Poland is to provide 13 generators, while another four have been offered to Ireland by Denmark via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
In a statement this afternoon, European Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality, Hadja Lahbib said that “extreme weather events, like storm Éowyn, increasingly put Europe’s disaster resilience to the test”.
“But they also demonstrate the growing strength of our joint preparedness and solidarity efforts. Our thoughts are with all those affected and with the first responders in Ireland who are doing their best to bring life back to normal.
“I thank Denmark for their prompt offer of assistance, and Poland for their excellent collaboration in hosting and delivering the rescEU power generators to Ireland. We are in this together,” Ms Lahbib said.
This comes as approximately 168,000 premises across the country remain without electricity, while crews from across Europe arrive to assist in the restoration effort.
ESB Networks said this afternoon that five days into the restoration operation in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn, they have restored power to 600,000 homes, farms and businesses.
“We are into day five of our restoration of supply following Storm Éowyn and wish to reiterate our request to the general public about safety. We still have many faults on the electricity network and have been made aware of several instances of potentially very dangerous incidents where members of the public have unknowingly approached fallen electricity infrastructure,” a spokesperson for ESB Networks said.
“Fallen debris after a storm can prevent people from seeing hidden risks such as wires entangled into trees and branches. If you come across fallen wires or damaged electricity network, never, ever touch or approach these as they are LIVE and extremely dangerous. Please report any damage to electricity infrastructure by calling 1800 372 999.”
Technicians from Britain have already been deployed to the “worst impacted areas”, according to the ESB, while crews from Austria and Finland arrived this morning.
Additional crews from electricity network operators in the Netherlands and France are due to arrive in the coming days.
The statement also made reference to the redrafting of skilled retirees from ESB Networks to assist in the operation, alongside the redeployment of crews from the south and east of the country to ongoing work elsewhere once the restoration work in their area has been completed.
While the ESB said that it anticipates that the “vast majority of customers” who lost power during Storm Éowyn will have their supply restored by Friday night, 31 January, as many as 100,000 customers will progressively have their power restored over the course of next week into February.