MANX Electricity Authority (MEA) staff are on stand-by 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in case there are any problems with the power supply.
And as the weather causes the majority of the MEA’s network challenges, it’s vital that they are prepared to react quickly.
The authority’s public relations manager Alison Cottier explained: ‘The MEA regularly undertakes exercises with its overhead line crews and underground cable teams, engineers and administrative support staff to ensure any unplanned power outages are dealt with as quickly and safely as possible.
‘The infrastructure the MEA maintains for the island is of a high standard, as are the staff that are continually providing support to that infrastructure.
‘Gone are the days of regular power losses and most people now take it for granted that should they “flick a switch”, their need for power and light will be provided.’
But the ability to ensure power is constantly available doesn’t happen by itself, and there are maintenance programmes covering the electricity network.
The weather provides MEA with the majority of its network challenges – with wind, lightning and snow making life difficult for staff. The MEA’s response to faults is a finely tuned operation. Engineers , who co-ordinate the response from the central control room at the MEA’s headquarters in Ballacottier Business Park in Douglas, are notified, and administrative staff respond to customer phone calls.
Meanwhile, the overhead line crews and underground cable teams responsible for locating and fixing the problem are despatched to site.
The work normally involves isolating a fault area and then back-feeding the supply to customers to provide power while the fault is being repaired.
Underground cable repairs are regularly done working ‘live’.
The MEA has a variety of support vehicles that ensure it is able to approach any fault in any location.
Alison said: ‘This is essential on an island of varied terrain as the alternative would be to bring in specialised vehicles from across the water to support us which could potentially mean long periods of power loss for customers.’
The MEA is proud that its reliability ranks among the best in Europe.
As well as providing security of supply to large organisations it also provides people who require ‘power for life’, such as those using defibrillators at home.
The MEA has a secure database of all those on the network who are potentially vulnerable. It’s a free service and anybody with concerns can register.