A power cut is treated as an emergency, so you can speak to someone 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Our three emergency numbers are shown on the left. Please use the one for your area.
During a power cut, we can keep you updated with text messages. If you have a power cut in your area, text 'Power' followed by your postcode, e.g. Power IP3 6QX to 80876. We will provide you with regular updates, until your power is restored.
If you are reliant on electricity for medical equipment – or have other special needs – we understand that a power cut is especially worrying. If we know where you are, we can help.
We like to keep contact details of all our customers, who are most vulnerable in the event of a power cut. Although this doesn’t necessarily mean we can restore your power more quickly, it does mean we can offer you additional help and support.
If the power cut only affects you, we won’t know about it until you, or someone close to you, calls us. We’ll then do everything we can to support and advise you, with regular updates on when power may be restored. If you agree, we can also ask the British Red Cross to visit to offer you extra help and support.
We can include you on our register if you are:
- Dependant on medical equipment
- Chronically sick
- Disabled
- A special case that you would like us to consider
- A nursing or residential home
Register now
If you satisfy these conditions and live in our network area – London, the South East of England or the East of England – simply download our application form, complete your details and send them to: psr@ukpowernetworks.co.uk or Priority Services
Co-ordinator, UK Power Networks, Fore Hamlet, Ipswich, IP3 8AA
If you have any questions, or can’t print out the application form, please contact us by telephone on: 0800 169 9970 (This is an answer phone service. Please leave your name and telephone number and your call will be returned as soon as possible).
Sometimes we may need to switch off your power while we work on electricity cables nearby. For example, we could be replacing or repairing an underground cable or equipment that is old or damaged. Or we could be making changes to overhead lines because one of your neighbours has asked us to. For our engineers to carry out this work safely, we have to switch off the electricity supplies serving the area.
But don’t worry - we will tell you before we do that unless it’s an emergency situation. We’ll send you a note through your door, in advance, that will give you the times we expect to switch off the power and when it is due back on (cards shown below).
For helpful advice during a power cut, click here
If you need to contact us, call us at any time of the day or night on the numbers to the left-hand side of the screen. If we have sent you a card in the post, the relevant engineer’s contact number should be on there.
It isn’t always possible to predict, however, here are some precautions you can take if you do have a power cut:
- If electricity is crucial for any medical equipment you have, please contact us now so we can put you on our Priority Register for assistance during any power cuts.
- Make sure you have multiple torches along with extra batteries
- Keep a plug-in telephone that does not require electricity – remember that with cordless phones you may not be able to make phone calls once the batteries are dead
- Keep important documents safe and handy
If your power goes off:
- Avoid opening the freezer door to protect your frozen food, which can usually last up to 15 hours
- Turn off and unplug any non-essential electrical equipment
- Leave one light switched on, so you know when the power returns
- Keep warm by staying in one room and wearing several layers of clothing
- Limit the use of your laptop or smart phone to retain battery power
- Follow us on twitter @UKPowerNetworks. We are there 24 hours a day to keep you updated
- Keep an eye on any elderly or ill neighbours
- Never leave candles burning or heating appliances switched on in unoccupied rooms
After the power cut
- Check your circuit breaker
- If there has been a storm or emergency situation, stay away from fallen lines, flooded areas and debris to stay safe
- If using your own generator, please be careful to follow safe operating procedures. Never run it inside your home
Advice for vulnerable people during a power cut
If you or a relative are reliant on necessary medical or other electrical equipment, please read this advice on what to do during a power cut.
- Stair Lifts - If your stair lift is mains operated, it will stop where it is during a power cut. Check now to see if there is a manual release handle that can be used to return the lift safely to ground level if it stops halfway between floors. Some stair lifts have battery back up power. This automatically takes over and keeps the lift working if there's a power cut. If your lift doesn't have this, it may be possible to have it fitted. Contact your lift manufacturer/supplier for more information.
- Medical equipment - If you have a medical condition – or rely on medical equipment which would be severely affected by a power cut – please discuss your concerns and needs with your carer, district nurse, doctor or social worker etc, so that you can cope with a power cut. They may be able to give you a personal emergency plan, so you know what to do. This should always include calling our power cut emergency line (listed on the left of this screen) to let us know that you are without power.
- Telephones - Many modern home phones, particularly cordless ones, may not work during a power cut. Try to keep an ordinary telephone that plugs into a landline socket on each floor of your home, so you'll still be able to call someone for help. Remember to keep a mobile phone fully charged.
- NHS Direct Helpline -If you need medical advice, call the NHS Direct Helpline on 0845 4647.
Our automatic alarm systems usually alert us of any large power cuts. With smaller power cuts, however, we rely on customers telling us. Once we know of a power cut, we urgently investigate where the problem originates. Initially, we’ll try to remedy it from our control centre, which is the quickest way to get your power back on. If we can’t, our engineers will travel to the local substation site to investigate and restore power as quickly and safely as they can.
Keeping you informed
Our engineers will feed regular updates to our contact centre on how the work is progressing. Through our website, text messages, telephone messages and calling customers back with updates, we’ll do our best to keep you informed.
If you have contacted us about a power cut, when the problem is fixed and the power comes back on, we’ll call you the next day to ensure that everything is working as it should be and that you don’t have any problems.
Customers often ask us why their power goes off, but their neighbours’ power stays on
We supply power to your home or business at low voltage, either 230 or 400 volts. Power does not travel very far at these voltages, so we bring the power to your area at much higher voltage, usually 11,000 volts. We reduce the voltage in local substations and deliver the power to you through underground cables, overhead lines, or a mixture of both.
How your property is connected to our network
We usually use four wires for low voltage distribution. Three are live, called phases, and one is the neutral. Domestic customers get their electricity from one of the three live phases and the neutral. We aim to connect an equal number of houses to each phase, although this might be randomly applied in a street.
When a fuse protecting one of the three phases blows only a third of the customers lose power. If two fuses blow then two thirds of the connected customers go off. You can see now how some customers can be without power while their immediate neighbours are not affected.
Keeping the power on
In urban areas, substations are relatively close together and often interconnect with each other. We can use link boxes in the footpath to alter these connections and keep your power on from a different substation while we work on our equipment. If there is a fault we may be able to get your power back this way too.We can sometimes do this with the overhead lines in rural areas too. However, there is often less interconnection as the houses and substations tend to be further apart.
Underground cables are normally reliable if they are not disturbed. Common causes of cable faults included vibration, subsidence and other companies digging nearby. Any damage to the cable allows water in the ground to get in and cause a breakdown. It may be months before the problem gets bad enough to cause a power cut.
Faults on low voltage underground cables can often be intermittent and very hard to find. If we can replace the fuses successfully it is usually because the heat from the fault has resealed the cable. We can only use our fault locating equipment once the fault has become permanent.
Overhead lines are more likely to be affected by lightning, trees and birds or vermin causing short circuits.
