Reliability of Supply
The supply of electricity to our customers can be interrupted by damage to equipment due to lightning strikes, high winds or human error, for example. We have highly efficient outage-response procedures in place which enable us to repair damage and restore power quickly. When an outage occurs, we analyze its causes carefully and use what we learn to design and implement solutions that enhance system reliability, like the option of using underground cables.
A comparison of different market units shows the connection between respective network structures and different numbers and frequency of interruptions. Exceptional events also play a role here.
Europe experienced extensive power outages in mid-January 2007. Cyril, a low-pressure system with hurricane-force winds, caused damage that left about 200,000 customers in E.ON’s service territory in Germany temporarily without power. Outages also affected about 321,000 E.ON customers in the United Kingdom. The rapid response of E.ON UK line technicians helped restore power within a few hours.
Thanks to our international network, line technicians from E.ON Avacon and E.ON Hanse in Germany traveled to Sweden to help E.ON Nordic colleagues repair lines brought down by Cyril. This help ensured that damaged lines were brought back on line as quickly as possible. About 15,000 households were without power for several hours, primarily in the Kroneberg region. Following previous storms, we’d begun a program of replacing overhead lines with underground cables or with new, storm-resistant technology. The success of these measures is already evident, with fewer power outages in the wake of severe storms. Without these measures, we are convinced that a significantly greater number of customers would have lost their power.
A rupture in the half-inch-thick steel wall of a highpressure natural gas pipeline in Gräveneck, Germany, demonstrated that we’re well prepared to manage crises, even crises that occur very rarely. On the morning of August 28, 2007, the pipeline ruptured in Gräveneck, leading to an explosion and fire that damaged vegetation within a 200-meter radius of the rupture. When monitoring equipment showed a loss of pressure in the pipeline, staff at the network control center and at the site shut off the flow of natural gas, which extinguished the fire. No one was hurt in the incident, there were no service interruptions for our gas transport customers, and we swiftly reached agreements to compensate owners for any property damage. Gas service was quickly restored to the surrounding communities. The rupture was caused by ground shifting on the side of a hill near the pipeline resulting from rain-saturated soil and the extra weight of excavated earth that had been piled on the hill. E.ON Ruhrgas and E.ON Gastransport kept the public and authorities well informed throughout the incident. They also sent E.ON Ruhrgas’s Chief Technology Officer and other senior executives to survey the situation and talk with residents and assure them of the superb safety record of natural gas pipelines.
Live Network Information Online
Following its launch in 2006, our Business Unit Central Networks remains the first and only distribution network operator in the U.K. to offer a live network information map on their website. Customers are able to access detailed information about faults and planned outages, including estimated restoration times and start times for the outage. The interactive map is fed from live system data and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. With just a few clicks of the mouse, visitors can find out which streets and how many people are affected by outages.
Residential Access to E.ON Distribution Systems
In the areas where E.ON is the licensed electric distribution system operator, essentially all households are connected to our system. The exception is Moldova, where some households in rural areas, never supplied with power, remain unconnected. Local community councils estimate the figure to be around 10,000 households. Together, E.ON Moldova Distributie and E.ON Modova Furnizare served more than 1,270,000 customer accounts as of February 28, 2008, and are working hard to connect the remaining households to the system.
More information about this topic on other E.ON websites:
Live Network Information: Fault Information
E.ON UK is the first and only operator in the U.K. to offer a live network information map on our website featuring information about faults.
High Voltage
Here you’ll find extensive information about our electric transmission system in Germany, which extends from the North Sea to the Alps.
