• Engineers are continuing the work hard this morning to restore power to the remaining 7,524 customers in Greater Manchester and Lancashire
• Some properties may be without power until Monday due to severity of flooding
• Customers in Rochdale are being asked to reduce energy use to prevent further loss of power

More than 40 generators are being deployed across Lancashire and Greater Manchester to restore power, but customers in Rochdale (OL11 and OL12 postcodes) are being asked to conserve energy where possible to reduce the risk of further outages.

Power has been restored to 14,500 properties in Rochdale and currently 5,800 remain without power and 300 customers lost power in the last hour due to load demand.

Mark Williamson, operations director for Electricity North West, said: “Our engineers have worked through the night and will continue to work today in extremely difficult conditions to restore power to the remaining 7,800 customers in Lancashire and Greater Manchester.

“We are asking our customers in Rochdale to reduce their energy use to prevent further power outages while our engineers repair the damage. Simple things like turning off your Christmas lights or not using your washing machine or dishwasher for a while would make a huge difference.

“We are doing everything we possibly can to access our substations, assess the damage caused by severe flooding and restore supplies. I’d like to thank customers for their understanding and their goodwill to our teams during what continues to be an enormously challenging time for everyone involved. We are immensely proud of the area and the people we serve in the way they have dealt with this incident.”

Flood defences at Rochdale substation were upgraded in 2010 as part of a £468k scheme to protect power supplies against a '1-in-200-year' flood.

Once water has receded engineers, including inspectors and meter operators from electricity suppliers, will have to carry out door-to-door safety checks on equipment to safely restore power to properties.

Electricity North West is sending food vans to a number of locations today to provide hot food to customers without power. Vans are currently scheduled to visit Radcliffe, Padiham, Rochdale and Bury and locations can be found @ElectricityNW.

More information will be posted at www.electricitynorthwest.co.uk and on Twitter @ElectricityNW.

Vulnerable customers, including some older or disabled people, or those with a medical dependency on electricity, can also sign up to the Priority Services Register by visiting www.enwl.co.uk/priority or contacting Electricity North West on 0800 195 4141.

For advice on how to stay safe in a flooding event, please visit www.enwl.co.uk/power-cuts/flooding-advice.

To report a power cut please call 0800 195 4141, follow @ElectricityNW on Twitter or visit www.electricitynorthwest.co.uk.

• Radcliffe: 500 properties restored, 1,000 now without power
• Rochdale: Power restored to 14,500 properties, 5,800 remain without power, 300 lost power in the last hour due to load demand
• Bury: Power restored to 1,604 customers, 694 remain without power after second substation flooded yesterday afternoon
• Padiham: 1,490 now restored, 10 remain without power
• Croston: 89 now restored, 488 remain without power