Some 18,000 premises — farms among them, mainly in the west and southwest of Ireland — woke up without electricity this morning (Wednesday, September 30) after high winds swept the country overnight.

ESB Networks confirmed the outages and said its crews have been deployed "since first light" in all impacted areas to continue restoring power.

The faults follow status yellow wind warnings issued by Met Éireann yesterday (Tuesday, September 29). One warning covered all of Munster; a second covered Galway, Mayo and Sligo. Both ran until 9:00p.m. last night. The warnings have now expired.

When will supply be restored?

ESB Networks said restoration efforts "will endure throughout the day", with the vast majority of impacted customers expected to have supply back by this evening.

The utility acknowledged the impact on households and businesses in a statement: "We acknowledge the disruption to family and commercial life this causes and thank impacted customers for their patience."

For farm businesses in the affected counties, the outage interrupts milking equipment, refrigeration, water pumping and feeding systems that rely on mains power. Farmers without standby generation face a race to get supply back before evening milking.

What about fallen wires?

ESB Networks issued a blunt safety warning to anyone surveying storm damage this morning. If you come across fallen wires or damaged electricity infrastructure, you should never, ever touch or approach these, as they are live and extremely dangerous.

Damage to the electricity network should be reported by calling 1800 372 999.

What caused the outages?

Both warned regions saw very strong and gusty south-easterly winds. Fallen trees and branches were expected in these areas, and the resulting damage to the network left thousands of premises disconnected overnight.

The windy conditions have now subsided.

What weather is next?

Met Éireann expects fairly mixed conditions in the days ahead. This morning, heavy showers with thunderstorms will affect Munster. Today will be a bright, fresh day across the country with a mix of sunny spells and showers.

Some of those showers will be heavy, with a chance of isolated thunderstorms.

Highest temperatures today are expected to reach 14° to 18°, with moderate to fresh southerly winds decreasing mostly moderate later in the day.

Tonight will become dry in many areas with clear spells, as showers gradually become confined to western counties. Lowest temperatures will fall to 5° to 9° with light to moderate southerly breezes.

Farmers in the west and southwest should watch for ESB Networks updates through the day, report any network damage immediately, and plan evening milking around the utility's target of restoring supply to the vast majority of customers by tonight.