Power outage in Cork city left some householders 'frustrated and nervous'

A power outage which saw multiple businesses and households across Cork without power on Friday left people “frustrated and nervous”, a Cork TD has said.

Cork North Central TD Thomas Gould said that the power outage affected many of his constituents on the northside of the city.

According to the ESB’s PowerCheck, power was restored on Saturday afternoon to areas in Cork city affected by an overnight power outage.

While power in many parts of the city centre returned last night, the ESB confirmed earlier today that a 'major fault' saw many in Farranree and some parts of the city still without electricity this morning.

More than 2,000 premises were affected this morning and the ESB initially estimated it would be 2pm before all power was restored.

But the utility provider later reported that the fault in Kilbarry had been fully resolved, with power restored shortly after noon.

No reason has yet been given for the outages; the ESB has been approached for comment.

Deputy Gould said he was contacted by many constituents, some of whom were trying to make bottles for babies, were not able to boil a kettle of water, did not have electricity for heating and had no light.

He said that it is important that the ESB communicates the reason for the outage.

We’re waiting to see what’s after happening because people were very frustrated and nervous last night.

Meanwhile, thousands in the city centre were left without power on Friday night and areas including Oliver Plunkett Street, North Main Street and Grand Parade were all impacted by the power cut.

The outage on Liberty Street was reported just before 7.30pm, and the ESB estimated that 5,595 customers were affected by the fault in the system.

Power was restored to just over 3,000 customers shortly after 9pm.

Speaking to The Echo, Labour representative Peter Horgan raised concerns about the lost hours of business that the outage caused for some Cork city businesses.

This isn’t exactly what businesses want to see happen in the run-up to Christmas. Government have a duty to ensure blackouts don’t become a regular occurrence.

Mr Horgan said that businesses cannot afford to experience such blackouts at a time when they are receiving such high electricity bills.

“Shortening their business evenings could be critical in terms of making ends meet,” he said.