The “Beast from the East” – March 2018
The “Freeze/ Thaw” event saw a rapid increase in air temperature from -4 to +6oC within a 6 hour window on the 2-3 March 18. It followed a period of amber weather warnings from the Met Office regarding very low temperatures and snow. The low temperatures resulted in the freezing of some customers’ supply pipes and fittings. The temperature increase saw the frozen customer fittings manifest themselves as leaks, which lead to a 35% increase in demand.
In June 2018, Ofwat wrote to the Company, with its assessment of how well it performed in the severe freeze/ thaw event in March 2018. It concluded that Portsmouth Water performed well, but there was still room for improvement and set out a small number of issues. It requested that we respond to the matters raised by the 28th September 2018.
This report provides the response to the matters raised by Ofwat