Engineers have been focusing efforts on repairing its larger substations in Cumbria that have been affected by flooding and that work has been completed today. The company is now focused on repairing damage to its smaller substations at street-level, which feed power directly to people's homes. This work is due to be largely completed tomorrow.
The final steps that need to be completed before power can be restored include house-to-house checks to be carried by Electricity North West to check its equipment. Most properties are also likely to need private electricians to carry out additional checks to ensure that customers' internal wiring is safe. Some properties will also need new electricity meters to be installed by an electricity supplier.
Steve Cox, incident manager for Electricity North West said: "We're working incredibly hard out in Cumbria and although I appreciate that it may look like progress is slow, we have been working 24-hours a day to repair the severe damage caused by the floods.
"We're going door-to-door to do safety checks on our equipment and are coordinating our response with the big six electricity suppliers - British Gas, EDF, E.On, Npower, Scottish Power, Scottish and Southern Energy - so that they can replace meters if needed.
"This is an incredibly complicated coordination exercise which includes needing access to people's homes - many of whom have understandably left the area - and we're working as hard as we can to restore power to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible."
Electricity North West is asking customers whose homes are without power, to contact them on 0800 195 4141, to arrange access to their properties.
A large number of homes and businesses remain on generators in Lancaster, Morecambe, Carnforth and the surrounding area as engineers work to complete repairs on the main substation supporting the area which flooded on Saturday cutting power to 55,000 properties.
All latest updates are being posted on Twitter @ElectricityNW and on Electricity North West's Facebook page.
