A TEAM of engineers from the Manx Electricity Authority has headed to Scotland to help restore power to thousands of homes hit by severe weather.
The MEA team, made up of overhead line crew Juan Crawley, Paul Lockwood, Ryan Rhodes, Lee Cain and Gary Kelly, are working alongside Scottish Power engineers and will return to the island once supplies have been restored.
They had been due to sail on Wednesday night but with the ferry cancelled due to continuing bad weather in the Irish Sea, their departure had to be postponed until yesterday morning (Thursday).
Some 55,000 homes in Scotland were left without power after falling trees and other debris damaged power lines as severe winds gusting up to 100 mph battered the country on Tuesday. By Thursday morning, 12,000 homes were still without electricity.
Central Scotland and Fife were worst hit but serious faults have been reported across the entire country, including in Dumfries, the Borders and Lanarkshire.
The call to assist Scottish Power was received from NEWSAC (North East West South Area Consortium), made up of utilities from across the British Isles which work together in times of need.
MEA chairman Eddie Lowey MLC said: ‘It is pleasing to see MEA playing its part in fostering good relations with the adjacent isles, on behalf of the Isle of Man, with this reciprocal agreement. We have ourselves been assisted in the past during the severe storms of 2005 when many Manx customers were without supply.’
