When high winds or severe weather hit our distribution area, all sorts of damage can occur to the electricity network. Fallen trees and high winds can damage overhead lines, substations, and service cables that bring power to thousands of our customers. Therefore, during severe weather, the probability will increase that you may be affected by a prolonged power cut.

We appreciate your concerns and understand how frustrating it can be to see power restored to other homes while you continue to be without power. Damage caused by severe weather can be extensive, and repairs can take hours and occasionally even days.

Round the clock

Our staff work around the clock to make sure everyone's power is restored as soon as possible, and we must do this in a way that is both safe for our customers and also our staff.

We also ensure that we carry out repairs in a manner that is fair to everyone. By prioritising repairs we can avoid our engineers spending an hour restoring power to one customer when we could have restored power to dozens of homes in the same time.

If your power is still off, but your neighbour's is on, it is likely that you require an individual repair to the service cable that runs from the pole to your property. These repairs can only be made after the main overhead lines have been repaired. That is why you may see a Central Networks team in your area, or a team may have even come and gone, but yet you still have no power. Repairing individual lines can take a considerable amount of time. We think it is only fair to first carry out those repairs which restore power to a large number of customers before moving to repairs that restore power to a single customer; however we do ensure that our engineers try to restore all supplies as quickly as possible, and in the safest possible way.

Safety first - fallen overhead power lines

Stay away from fallen overhead lines and keep others away too. Always assume that any fallen overhead line is live and call us immediately on our emergency number to report it. The number can be found on the 'How to contact us' page in the link on the right-hand side.

Be cautious when clearing any fallen branches or debris from your property after the severe weather has passed. Avoid making contact with any branches or debris that may be in contact with overhead power lines.

Freezer food

The information below is provided by the Food Standards Agency:

• If you have a power cut, don’t open the freezer door – this helps food stay frozen for longer. When the power comes back on, check the food inside.
• If the food is still hard and icy, you can leave it in the freezer. Turn the freezer to its maximum setting for 24 hours, before putting it back on a setting that keeps it at -18º C. If the food has started to defrost, you may need to throw it away, depending on the type of food.
• Throw away any food that you would eat frozen, for example ice cream, if it has started to defrost. Do not refreeze these foods. If meat and fish, or foods containing these, have started to get soft, throw these away too.
• Watch out for liquid coming out of defrosting raw meat because this could spread bacteria to other foods.
• Bread and frozen vegetables can be refrozen, as long as they have not been touched by raw meat or liquid coming out of it.
• For more information or for the answers to many commonly asked questions please visit www.eatwell.gov.uk at the link above.