Around 60,000 customers have been restored since Storm Desmond hit the region on Saturday, 55,000 of which in Lancaster after floodwater breached flood defences at the main substation.

Engineers are working in areas trying to access substations, including by boat, to try and repair the damage and restore power to the remaining customers.

More than 60 generators have been delivered to key sites and installed to restore power. Those customers who are on generator are not expected to lose power again but might experience a short outage for a couple of minutes when engineers put them back on main supply.

Mark Williamson, operations director for Electricity North West, said: “We want to reassure our customers in Lancaster and Cumbria that we are doing everything we possibly can to access our substations, assess the damage caused by severe flooding and restore supplies.

“Those customers who are on generators might experience a short power outage when we reconnect them to normal supply, but if they are off for longer than a couple of minutes we would ask them to get in touch.

“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 Kendal and Carlisle substations have held, protecting supplies to 110,000 homes.

Electricity North West is posting regular updates on its social media channels and has drafted in extra support to its contact centre to handle customer calls.

Areas currently without power in Cumbria are: