In July 2007, Gloucestershire experienced extreme flooding and our engineers worked through the night to restore power to over 14,000 homes that were left without electricity after our Castle Mead substation was flooded.

On Sunday 22 July, our engineers worked closely with the emergency services and the armed forces to erect an emergency flood defence and pump water from the substation. Early the following morning, we decided that we needed to take 47,753 customers off supply for safety reasons and to minimise damage to the substation. This enabled the quicker restoration of power once the water had been pumped out.

We restored supplies to 33,400 homes and businesses within the next two hours, and the majority of the remaining customers had their power restored throughout the day with a few final customers coming back on early on Tuesday 24th July.

Our people

Our people worked tirelessly during these floods and carried out their duties efficiently and safely. This was a great performance and a measure of the competence of our people engaged throughout this civil emergency. Senior managers helped with strategic activities at our command centre and co-ordinated the official contingency and response process to get things back to normal. We very quickly developed and issued an operational safety policy outlining the operating requirements in emergency flood conditions, after completing supporting risk assessments. Additional health and safety guidance in several forms was also provided.

This was a fantastic response from our team, who worked 24/7 and went well beyond their normal duties. We were delighted that their efforts were recognised through the award of MBEs in the New Year’s Honours List for two of those closely involved.

Customer Care

During the flood, our website received 10,305 visits of which 5,473 hits were requesting live network information. We remain the only distribution business in the UK able to provide this service. As the floodwaters began to recede, we produced flood advice leaflets for our engineers to distribute to all affected homeowners, along with details of a dedicated 0800 telephone number.

We received positive feedback from our customers who expressed gratitude for the efforts of our engineers working in some challenging conditions. The professionalism of our customer services teams was also praised.

Logistics

The 2007 Gloucester flood disaster saw our business services teams mobilise to offer assistance and relief to flood victims. Within 12 hours, we were able to provide two vehicles to help distribute water. The teams helped source and supply about 5,000 litres of bottled water, along with local mobile catering and portable toilets as well as providing portable showers for craftsmen. This helped bring relief and reassurance to flood victims who were stranded after the unprecedented torrents hit Gloucestershire.