Enea Operator is rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by storm in Wielkopolska

Electricity supplies to all Clients of Enea Operator in Wielkopolska were restored after last week’s storm. Nearly 650 high-, medium- and low-voltage poles were damaged by weather anomalies which affected the region. At one point, more than 120,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity. Over 100 emergency teams from Enea and external contractors worked to repair damages left by the thunderstorm. Now that the power is back on, it is the time to rebuild damaged grid sections of all voltage types.

The situation in Wielkopolska is slowly getting back to normal. The power is back on in all homes, but the reconstruction of damaged buildings, farms and businesses will take months. Just as the reconstruction of damaged sections of Enea Operator’s grid, which will take several more weeks.

– In our job, the priority is to restore power to all our Clients. Wherever possible we have switched the grid to supply electricity to as many Clients as possible, says Jarosław Popowski, the head of Poznań branch of Enea Operator.

– Luckily the storm has failed to affect all areas of our activity. Thanks to this, by reconnecting the grid we were able to restore power to nearly half of our Clients who were left without electricity. Within 24 hours power was back for over 80% of them. The remaining  20% were mainly residents of Gniezno, Września and Śrem counties, epicenters of the storm in Wielkpolska - Popowski adds.

After restoring power the company is working mainly to rebuild low- and medium-voltage grid sections which were destroyed completely.

– We want to restore regular grid layout as quickly as possible. As of now, in many places we have switched the grid and are supplying residents from other circuits than was the case before the storm. This is only a provisional layout and that’s why we are mobilizing to rebuild damaged grid sections as soon as possible - Popowski said.

A total of more than 250,000 Clients were left without electricity in the entire area of Enea Operator during and after the August 11 storm. According to preliminary estimates, over 70 high-voltage poles were damaged - structures of more than 24m weighing up to 2 tons - as well as 2,500 low- and medium-voltage poles. Some 400 km of grid sections of all types need to be rebuild.

Repairs, or rather reconstruction of the power grid in areas most affected by the storm, i.e. Chojnice and Nakło counties, continues. Some 2,000 medium-voltage Clients there are still left without power. The more than 100 repair teams working there for the past week were joined by c. 100 qualified electrical line assembly personnel from Wielkopolska, with heavy equipment for work under difficult conditions. Given the scale of the destruction, efforts of the people involved in rebuilding the grid are going beyond the usual standards.