Watchdog to probe power firm's snow operation

The Electricity Regulator in Northern Ireland is to examine the reaction of the province's power company to the storms which cut off more than 100,000 homes.

Douglas McIldoon has asked one of his consulting engineers to prepare a report on the performance in handling the situation.

The Stormont Enterprise Minister, Sir Reg Empey has already said there were questions to be answered by Northern Ireland Electricity.

NIE is working to get the last 7,900 customers still without power back on line before midnight - but they said they could give no guarantees they would be successful.

The company said it had "thrown" all available engineers into the affected areas and helicopters and heavy earth-moving equipment was being used to get into areas still blocked by heavy snow drifts.

A spokesman said that in the worst affected area - around Downpatrick, Co Down where 4,700 were still blacked out - 220 linesmen are finding more and more faults as they continue repairs.

Despite the criticism of their performance NIE's Peter Gavin paid tribute to the efforts of more than 500 engineers, linesmen and administrative staff who had worked through the night to combat the effects of the 70mph winds and heavy snow.

He said: "To restore 100,000 customers to power over such a widespread area within 18 hours was a magnificent response on behalf of our staff who worked round the clock in extremely unpleasant and sometimes dangerous conditions."