THOUSANDS of hard hit households won’t be eligible for compensation despite being without power for a week.
Historic Storm Eowyn brought gale force winds of 180kph and caused widespread power outages and business closures last week.
A total of 768,000 ESB customers lost supply on Friday as Storm Eowyn ripped through the country – and thousands remain without power today.
ESB teams have been working tirelessly to restor supplies for households and business.
Crews have restored electricity in 438,000 premises as of yesterday afternoon.
But they are still desperately racing to restore power to 250,000 customers but the company has confirmed to the Irish Sun no compensation payments will be given.
A spokesperson told us: “In exceptional cases such as storms or extensive disruption to electricity supplies, we cannot offer this.”
In some situations, it is possible to claim compensation for electricity outages.
Under the ESB guide titled “Our 12 Service Guarantees To You” the company outlined their restoration guarantee.
The ESB said: “Even with the best will in the world, faults will
sometimes occur in our electricity network and you may be without supply.
“If this happens, please let us know immediately. We’ll do everything possible to restore your supply quickly.”
The company said their aim is to restore supply in under four hours in 95 per cent of cases.
But if you are without power for 24 hours after notifying them of your outage, you can claim compensation.
You can claim €65 if you are a domestic customer or €130 if you are a business.
And you can then claim an extra €35 for every extra 12 hours that you are without power.
In order to claim your payment under this guarantee, you should contact them within one month of the supply failure.
And if you lose power supply but notice that your neighbours still have power, the team recommends that you check your fuses and trip switch.
If these are ok, it may be the Main ESB fuse that has failed.
You should contact the ESB immediately.
The document states that they will call to you free of charge within three hours if you call them between 8.30am and 11pm.
Calls after 11pm are guaranteed to receive a call out before 11.30am the following morning.
If the ESB fails to meet these guarantees, they will pay you €35.
And the company has an extra guarantee for paying you.
The document said: “ESB Networks aims to provide you with an ever improving standard of service, and our Customer Service Guarantees are specifically designed to ensure this.”
The ESB guarantees to send you a cheque within 10 working days.
But if they fail to do this, they will pay you an additional €35.
