As at 2.15pm
- Storm Darragh moving across region and Northern Powergrid focused on supporting affected customers.
- Power has so far been reconnected for more than 9,300 customers.
- We are keeping customers updated via power cut map, texts and social media.
- Our 24/7 contact centre team is available and ensuring any vulnerable customers are offered extra advice and support.
- Frontline customer support teams are ready to head into communities to offer welfare support to areas who need it most.
- Our teams were ready to support our customers and will be assessing damage. Conditions will be challenging, but our teams are ready to go as soon as it is safe for them to do so.
Storm Darragh is moving across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire since this morning (7 December) bringing strong winds and rain and challenging conditions across our regions.
We are making good progress, and more than 9,300 customers have their power back on. Conditions are challenging, but our teams are ready to go when it is safe, and our Network Control teams are using remote technology to get the lights back on where we can.
We know how difficult it is if you have a power cut, and our teams are working to safely get power back on and fix the issues caused by the storm as quickly as possible.
We expect the storm to stay in our region until tomorrow, so our teams will continue to work on updating the 10,480 customers currently affected on when their power will be back on, answering customer calls, sending additional support vehicles out into our communities and we our teams are ready to move to the areas we expect to be affected.
Steve McDonald, Northern Powergrid’s Director of Field Operations, said: “We are closely tracking the storm – especially wind speeds - so that our teams can be ready to climb electricity poles as soon as it is safe to do so and repair damage to get people’s lights back on. Our main priorities are to deal with emergency situations as quickly as possible, supporting our customers and ensuring our people can work safely as soon as the conditions allow.
“As the storm moves through our regions today and tomorrow, we could see more damage to our network, and we have teams ready to respond to get peoples’ power on remotely wherever we can.
“Our contact centre is very busy so for those customers who have mobile phone access, our power cut map is the quickest way to report your power cut and get updates as it holds the same information that our contact centre teams have about when your power is expected to be restored.
“We want to reassure our customers that, wherever it is safe to work, our teams will be out there doing everything they can to safely get people’s lights back on. We thank customers for their patience whilst Storm Darragh continues to hit our region.”
If you need additional support as a result of the damage being caused, please get in touch. For customers who are part of our Priority Services Membership, we will make sure you receive extra help, and we'll keep in touch with you to let you know the time your power is likely to be back on. We can contact you regardless of the time of day, or night, by text message if we have a mobile phone number for you, or by calling you if we only have a landline number for you. Alternatively, you can contact our dedicated priority service line 0800 169 2996. If you know someone or would like to sign up to our Priority Services Membership you can do so at northernpowergrid.com/care or by calling 105.
Our customer support vehicles and welfare partners are ready to head out into the worst hit areas to offer help on the ground to those who need it most. These will be very visible with Northern Powergrid branding, where there will be hot drinks and phone charging points available.
Updates will be provided on our social media channels which we encourage customers to share them.
We encourage anyone who knows of neighbours or relatives who may be in a vulnerable position to call us on 105 so we can ensure they get the additional support they need.
If you have been impacted by a power cut and you have not yet heard from us, please use our website to report online: www.northernpowergrid.com/power-cuts or call 105.
We will do everything we can to get the power back on and support our customers whilst we work to repair any damage. If you need additional support, please contact us. For more information, visit our weather page: https://www.northernpowergrid.com/weather-warning
If you spot any fallen trees on our power lines/poles or damaged cables due to the strong winds, stay well clear and call 105 immediately.
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