Northern Powergrid continues to repair damage caused by Storm Darragh

• Over 87,000 customers have been affected by Storm Darragh, caused by high winds.
• Our teams made good progress yesterday and through the night – our focus is now on reconnecting the 10,000 customers who are still without power.
• It is likely that some will run into Monday – the weather warning has been extended and the conditions continue to hamper our work today.
• Our welfare support teams are working with our Local Resilience Forum partners to support the communities affected.
• We are liaising with the other companies across the UK with a view to sharing resources to best support the overall effort.

Storm Darragh is continuing to bring strong winds across our regions. So far, the storm has affected power supplies to around 87,000 customers and our teams are continuing to work hard in challenging conditions to get the power back on and support all those affected.

Our teams made good progress yesterday and through the night – our focus is now on reconnecting the final 10,000 customers who are still without power.

Today, we will restore as many of the remaining supplies as possible. The scale of damage means that it is unlikely that we will be able to reconnect all customers today. We are confident that with the teams we have in place, if we are not able to get everyone reconnected, only a small proportion will need to be done on Monday. The industry-wide mutual support arrangements have been initiated and we are actively exploring the scope for companies to share resources to support worst affected regions.

Steve McDonald, Director of Field Operations, said: “Although not the worst affected, our region has continued to be hit by the strong winds overnight and we expect this to continue until this evening. Our teams are working hard to get the power back on. This morning, we still have around 10,000 customers without power, with North Yorkshire being the worst affected.”

“We are prioritising those situations where customers have been without power overnight. We will continue to send out additional welfare support to those who need it most, but unfortunately due to the high wind speeds and the unsafe conditions preventing our teams from repairing the damage, some customers in North Yorkshire and the Humber may be without power until Monday “

“We know how difficult this is for our customers. We apologise to those who continue to be impacted by this storm and appreciate their support and patience whilst we work hard to get our communities back up and running. We will keep updating our website with our expected timescales for getting the power back on based on the information our teams are sending us.” Our customer care teams are out in the communities offering hot meals and supporting for those who need it, and making contact with local volunteers who are running warm hubs in the community.

If anyone needs any additional support, please get in touch and we’ll do everything we can to help. Supporting customers is always our priority. We know it’s difficult to be without power and we’re here to support you, 24/7.

Our power cut map gives the same information that is available to our contact centre advisors. Please report your power cut online, keep yourself updated and register with us for direct updates unless you require extra support. This means we can support those who needs us most.

If you are in a dangerous or difficult situation, there is risk to life, or you are medically dependent on electricity, call us on 105.