…Power Cuts Leave 40,000 Brits Without Electricity In 10 Regions
Brits across the south east and east of England have been hit by a number of power cuts that have left tens of thousands of people without electricity this morning.
Some Brits have been warned power might not be restored for a few hours.
Power cuts have left nearly 40,000 Brits without electricity across 10 parts of the country.
This morning, tens of thousands of Brits across the south east and east of England were left in the dark as a massive power outage struck.
Mainly centred around West Sussex, London has also been hit along with Kent, Suffolk, Buckinghamshire and more.
The list of places hit by the power cut:
West Sussex, 35,781 people
Greater London, 1,437 people
East Sussex, 444 people
Kent, 225 people
Suffolk, 116 people
Bedford, 114 people
Norfolk, 109 people
Buckinghamshire, 107 people
Essex, 84 people
Central Bedfordshire, 66 people
The power outage comes as the UK is battered by artic conditions this week and suffers through one of the coldest March nights in a decade.
Tens of thousands of Brits have been left without power.
North London is one of a number of areas affected by the power cuts, and one Brit there said they had been without power for almost an hour.
Shortly after 9am this morning, they tweeted: “Power cut in North London N227XW since 8am. Absolute shambles. 2nd cut in 2 weeks. Had to wait 20 mins to get through UK Power Networks – who were completely unaware of the cut – because apparently no sensors monitoring substations in real-time. “
However, UK Power Networks warned that the outage, affecting 197 properties there, likely wouldn’t be solved until around midday if not later.
They were made aware of the fault at 8.34am and dispatched engineers soon after.
They went on to say: “Once on site, they will try to replace the safety equipment as an emergency to restore power. If that isn’t successful then they will need to locate the fault underground, excavate and repair. If that is the case, then the time to restore power will likely change.”
In the south east of the capital, UK Power Networks said they were aware of an “unplanned” power cut in the SE25 postcode area that was affecting 861 properties.
They believed this was caused by an underground fault in their network and that staff were on the way, but again warned power might only be restored as late as midday.
They added: “This is only an estimated time and may change depending on what our staff find once they are on site. We are also trying to divert the power around the network to restore supplies as soon as possible …”
The National Grid has come under strain during this week’s cold snap and has been forced to turn to heightened measures to keep the power on for Brits.
They paid some of the highest prices this winter for gas-generated power on Tuesday night, bidding £1,950 per megawatt hour – well above the average price of between £200 and £400 per megawatt hour.
But this figure is still below what was paid on December 12, when they paid a reported £27million in a single day.
Alongside this, the National Grid were first to use their backup coal plants for the first time this winter.
Two power units at EDF’s West Burton plant kicked into action on Tuesday afternoon, to help support the power grid.
The combination of freezing temperatures, driving up demand, and low wind cutting windfarm generation have had a double impact.
