STORM DARRAGH UPDATE 

As at 16.00

• Over 110,000 power cuts have been experienced by around 80,000 customers due to Storm Darragh.
• Our teams are making good progress throughout today in challenging conditions – our focus remains on reconnecting the 10,500 customers who are still without power.
• We expect we will restore power to over 95% of customers by the end of Sunday; around 2,500 customers will be without power until Monday. 
• Our welfare support teams are out in the communities most affected providing hot meals and additional support, working with our Local Resilience Forum (LRF) partners and supporting warm hubs. 
• For those customers who have been without power for more than 24-hours, we are providing additional support, including contributions to overnight accommodation. 

Storm Darragh has continued to bring strong winds across our regions throughout Sunday. So far, the storm has affected power supplies to around 80,000 customers and our teams are continuing to work hard in challenging conditions to get the power back on and support all those affected.

We are continuing to make good progress, with over 100,000 power cuts having been restored since the storm hit. Our focus remains on reconnecting the remaining 10,500 people who are still without power.

Today, we expect to be able to restore the majority of customers affected, however the scale of damage means that it is likely around 2,500 customers, mainly in the North Yorkshire area, will be without power until Monday. A large proportion of those customers who will not have power restored today (Sunday) are affected by power cuts that happened overnight or during the day today.

We have support teams out in our communities, going door to door to provide hot meals and welfare support, and we have contacted customers in the areas most affected to make sure they know the locations of our Customer Support Vehicles and what other support is available in their local area.

For customers who have been without power for more than 24-hours, we are offering a £150 contribution to overnight accommodation and further financial support where appropriate.

The industry-wide mutual support arrangements have been initiated and we are continuing to explore the scope for companies to share resources to support worst affected regions. Our region is not worst hit, so it remains to be seen whether there will be capacity elsewhere in the industry to send additional resources to support our team.

Steve McDonald, Director of Field Operations, said: “Our teams have been working hard since Storm Darragh hit on Saturday to support our customers, and we’ve made great progress in reconnecting nearly 68,000 customers. We haven’t stopped, and we are focusing on getting those customers who have been without power for the longest back on supply. We still have over 10,000 customers to get back on, and we know how difficult this can be, so in addition to our teams providing hot meals and additional welfare door-to-door, we’re offering support with overnight accommodation and supplementary costs for those who need it.”

“We will continue to send out additional welfare support to those who need it most, but the continued harsh weather has made it difficult for our teams to get to the repairs safely, which means unfortunately, some customers will be without power until Monday.”

“We are committed to getting our customers’ power back on as quickly as we can and we apologise to those who are still without power. We are grateful for all the support we’re receiving from our customers and appreciate their patience whilst we work hard to get our communities back up and running. We are still keeping our power cut map up to date on our website with estimates for when our customers will be back on. If you need any further support, we’re here 24/7 for our customers on 105. ”

Information for customers without power for more than 24-hours:

Up to £150 per household towards hotel accommodation for those off supply over 24 hours.

Reasonable costs of up to £30 per household will also be payable to customers after the first 24 hours off supply. Reasonable costs are for discretionary items including food.

Receipts must be provided for hotel accommodation, or reimbursement will not be processed. Please send  any receipts and details of your claim to [email protected].