Mark Horsley, chief executive, Northern Gas Networks

At around 9am on Good Friday the North of England’s gas network, Northern Gas Networks (NGN) started to receive an influx of calls from customers in the area. Reports were coming in that the gas supply of around 8,000 customers had suddenly stopped. NGN chief executive Mark Horsley recounts the events of that weekend.

It was early on Friday morning that we became aware of reports of a gas escape and no gas in the Silsden area. Our System Control team confirmed that gas pressures had fallen dramatically and indicated that we were dealing with a large-scale loss of supply situation. Our priority was to make the situation safe and with emergency response engineers already on the ground in Silsden, we assessed the situation and acted quickly, turning off the valve to isolate the damaged gas main.

With the situation safely controlled, we immediately mobilised a remote strategic incident control room in Sunderland, as well as setting up two operational bases in the town. With the operational team based out of Silsden AFC’s clubhouse, a community drop in centre was quickly established for customers at St James’ Church, around a mile up the road.

Over 100 Northern Gas Networks engineers were drafted in to support on Friday morning and a call for non-operational volunteers was put out business wide. Teams of colleagues quickly arrived on site, supported by volunteers from throughout the Silsden community as well as partner organisations including Bradford City Council and British Red Cross and more who helped us to identify and prioritise customers in vulnerable situations and take care of their well-being.

Our priority, having discovered the scale of the incident, was to get customers back on gas as quickly as possible, and it was clear that to do that we would need to issue a call for mutual aid from the gas distribution networks across the UK. We quickly invoked the industry emergency national emergency plan and mutual aid agreement and an army of engineers from across the UK were deployed to join the Northern Gas Networks team in the restoration effort.

The response was overwhelming and within hours, engineers from the UK’s gas networks – Wales and West Utilities, Cadent and SGN – had rallied their teams and over 100 engineers from Wales, the Midlands, South West of England and Scotland arrived in the town to help get the gas flowing to Silsden again.

By the time they arrived on site, our engineers had already begun a systematic process of visiting each of the 3,500 properties affected and safely turning off the gas supply meter.

We made a strategic decision early on to split the towns gas network into four key zones by flow stopping six gas pipes in the affected area. Zone 1, which spanned the largest area, supplying 1,100 properties, was the first to be reintroduced to gas and on Saturday evening we began to reconnect a small number of properties at the meter.

On Sunday morning our engineers continued to work in Zone 1 while engineers from Wales and West Utilities led the restoration effort in Zone 4, where two nursing homes were prioritised. Meanwhile the Northern Gas Networks team started to reintroduce gas to Zone 2 up to the meter. Engineers from Cadent then took up the role of restoring supplies to properties, going door to door to safely turn customers back on gas.

On Sunday evening the gas supply was restored to the final zone, Zone 3 and at this point, just two days after the incident was declared, over 1,700 properties were back on gas. Then early on Monday morning engineers from Cadent quickly galvanised to turn customers back on at the meter while our engineers began door knocking properties to speak to customers where they hadn’t been able to gain access and leaving information asking them to get in touch.

Clear communication was vital to ensuring a smooth process and customers were kept informed through hand-delivered letters and supporting information published on NGN’s website and social media channels as well as the local Facebook community page, Silsden Buzz. Northern Gas Networks also walked customers through every step at their community drop in centre at St James’ Church.

It was a huge coordinated effort – from frequent telephone calls between the offsite incident control room and the onsite operations centres, everyone had a role to play: Emergency Dispatch call centre, customer and communications teams, senior management, colleagues visiting customer homes and the community – we all worked together.

The support of the Silsden community itself, Bradford City Council, St James’ Church, Silsden Sports Club, Silsden AFC and British Red Cross were equally as important. Local people themselves showed an astonishing level of buoyancy throughout, welcoming the gas engineers into their homes, and jubilantly announcing on social media the locations of the gas reconnections as they progressed from street to street.

NGN appeared on ITV Calendar’s evening news programme, BBC Look North and BBC Radio Leeds to update customers on progress.

All the time the community drop in centre remained open between 8am and 10pm for customers to call in, speak to the team and get additional support including heaters, hotplates and food vouchers.

Thanks to the huge coordinated effort of the UK gas networks, led by Northern Gas Networks, gas supplies were restored to the town in record time.

Over 80 per cent of households rely on gas to heat their homes and at peak times and the gas networks transport up to four times as much energy as the electricity networks. While customers may not see us very often, we’re working around the clock to keep customers connected and make sure they stay safe. For me, what this incident highlights, is just what can be achieved by our industry when we work together and how vitally important the collective role of the UK gas networks is.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved and we’re looking forward to returning to Silsden later this year, at the invitation of the local community, to celebrate the response that weekend. It’s definitely a Bank Holiday that we won’t forget.

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