Utilities launch winter readiness campaign

Northern Ireland’s main utility companies have again this year joined forces to launch a winter readiness campaign to assist the public in their preparations for winter.

BT, Northern Ireland Electricity Networks, NI Water and Phoenix Natural Gas have been working together regularly over a number of years by providing  mutual support and aid during periods of severe weather or other unforeseen situations.

The companies have also issued a ‘cut out and keep’ list of useful contact details should utility services be disrupted due to severe weather. This will be available in newspapers, online and on social media. 

Sara Venning, CEO of NI Water and Chair of the Joint Utilities Working Group said:

“I very much welcome the opportunity to work with my colleagues in other utilities as we prepare for the winter months.  The combined breadth of expertise between our companies enables us to share knowledge and resources to further improve the vital services we deliver to the whole community, often in very severe weather conditions.

 “Although all of our companies require specialist skills to repair our networks, there are a number of areas we can share resources such as people, equipment, transportation vehicles and access to buildings.”

Consumer Council Chief Executive John French said:

“The Consumer Council commends BT, Northern Ireland Electricity Networks, NI Water and Phoenix Natural Gas for coming together to launch this Winter Readiness campaign. As we start to experience some bad weather, the Consumer Council encourages all households to look in their newspaper or go online and ‘cut out and keep’ this list of the utilities’ contact details, so they know whom to contact if things do go wrong.”

Experts believe that extreme weather across the UK and Ireland is becoming commonplace. Co-operation by utility companies and other agencies will greatly benefit any response to an emergency situation.