Cllr Trevor Gilligan recently commented on electricity outages, he said “This follows an outage at the Balgaddy station where thousands were affected for up to 6 hours. Residents of Westbourne and Castlegrange were amongst those affected. There is a growing concern amongst residents that more frequent electricity outages in the area will occur. ESB need to state why this outage occurred and what prevention measures for future outages. We don’t get any warning. My electricity went out during the night and at the time we had a young child. We’ve seen a huge increase in data centres. We need a plan and more info as to how we will supply the demand. Data centres account for approximately 20% of the electricity usage and this figure is growing rapidly. More than anyone, it is affecting nearby residents. This is having huge effects on the nearby neighbours. What plan does the government have to increase electricity loads? What if it affects hospitals, health centres or schools. In the past , local retail shops and petrol stations have been affected.”
“We had an outage at the time we had a young baby so we have taken some minor preparation measures in case of a future outage. We have a gas burner should we require hot water or milk. We have a torch, candles, lighters, backup chargers. We try to keep the phones fully charged as well. Better safe than sorry.”
