Electricity customers across Northern Ireland who experienced power outages as a result of Storm Éowyn in late January will not receive compensation.
That is according to the Department for the Economy, NIE Networks, and the Utility Regulator, who were charged by the Northern Ireland Executive to consider compensation payments for electricity customers most affected by power outages.
The Executive was informed by the grouping on Monday that there is currently no existing route to make payments to customers.
Nearly 326,000 homes and businesses lost power following damage at approximately 3,000 individual locations across Northern Ireland on January 24th.
Over 90% of NIE’s primary substations across the north experienced wind gusts in excess of 140km/h.
Following disruption and damage caused by Storm Éowyn a working group involving @Economy_NI, @NIElectricity, and @UREGNI was established to consider compensation payments for electricity customers most affected by power outages.
— Economy NI (@Economy_NI) March 10, 2025
The working group has now updated the… pic.twitter.com/QYaHnncIIv
A Department for the Economy spokesperson said: “NIE Networks has applied a severe weather exemption provided for in legislation under which customers can apply for compensation if they have been off electricity supply. The working group concluded that any other options involving recovery of payments from network charges would require legal or regulatory modifications which cannot be applied retrospectively for those customers impacted by Storm Éowyn.
“If NIE Networks was to voluntarily decline to apply the severe weather exemption, customers would pay 50% of the cost of compensation through their electricity bills next year and NIE shareholders would have to agree to bear the rest. No other electricity company shareholders in Britain or Ireland have been asked to bear the cost of compensation for Storm Éowyn which was an unprecedented weather event and NIE was not at fault for the disruption caused by the storm.”
The spokesperson added: “All bodies involved in the response to Storm Éowyn will be considering lessons learned and the need to consider appropriate and affordable measures to strengthen resilience to reduce the impact of future severe weather events.”