Kate Jones, Cadent’s incident controller explains the latest situation in Stannington to Malin Bridge, Hillsborough this morning:
“Cadent engineers are working around the clock to restore gas supplies in Stannington to Malin Bridge as quickly as possible. Our efforts have been delayed due to the sheer volume of water that flooded our network over a week ago.
“Each day we are getting more and more residents back on gas and we are aiming to get the majority of residents back on gas by the end of the weekend, but this does depend on removing the water.”
Today, (Sunday 11/12/2022) there will be 250 engineers on site again, doing various jobs to help restore gas. Engineers will be removing water from the gas mains with the 15 large tankers, this will be followed by smaller tankers to remove the water from the service pipes (the pipes that go from the main in the road, to a property). It only takes half an egg cup of water to stop gas flowing through a service pipe. Once we are sure the service pipe is clear, an engineer will check the gas meter, replace it if necessary, and then switch on the gas supply to the property. Ensuring the gas appliances are all working properly and repairing them if necessary.
Kate continues, “Throughout this incident we have been working closely with Sheffield Council to ensure those on the Priority Services Register have everything they require to manage without their gas. Council staff are visiting each home daily.
“The number of Priority Services Registered customers still without gas is 34 and that number is reducing. With the council, we are visiting daily to ensure they have everything they need until their gas supply is restored.”
To ensure we can get your gas supply back on, we need you to be at home, so we can carry out the necessary safety checks and remove water if necessary. If you are going to be out, leave a key with your neighbour or let us know. We will revisit each property again and again, if you are not able to be at home. If we have no luck, we will leave a card with our details on and ask that you call us and then we can send an engineer around to switch your gas back on.
Along with Cadent’s engineers, there are around 50 additional staff from Sheffield Council, Northern Powergrid, Yorkshire Water, Olivia Blake MP’s office, Northern Gas Network and SGN all helping residents and working to restore the gas supplies as quickly as possible.
Finally, “A huge thank you to all of the residents who have been affected by the flooded gas pipes this week. You have been incredibly patient and understanding throughout this incident and we fully understand your frustrations. We thank you for being so kind to our engineers and all of the staff working around the clock to get you back on gas. We truly appreciate this.”