There are “no routes” for Northern Ireland Electricity Networks to make compensation payments to customers who lost power during Storm Eowyn, a working group has said.
Almost 326,000 homes and businesses lost power as a result of the storm in January.
Widespread damage was mainly caused by trees striking overhead electricity wires. More than 90% of NIE’s primary substations across Northern Ireland experienced wind gusts in excess of 90mph.
A working group involving the Department for the Economy, NIE Networks and the Utility Regulator was set up to consider compensation for customers most affected by power outages.
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It was established at the request of the Stormont Executive to consider options where payments would be recovered through customer electricity bills.
However the group has concluded there is “currently no existing route to make payments to customers”.
A Department for the Economy spokesperson said NIE Networks has applied a severe weather exemption, which is provided for in legislation under which customers would usually 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 Eowyn,” they said.
“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 Eowyn, 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 Eowyn 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.”