Hundreds of engineers are completing the final repair work on Cumbria’s power network following Storm Éowyn to restore the last customers affected.
Teams from Electricity North West have now restored power to 110,000 properties. In Storm Arwen just over 90,000 properties were impacted the network operator says.
Stephanie Trubshaw, Electricity North West’s incident manager, said: “We know how hard Storm Éowyn has been for Cumbrians and our focus is to continue to provide welfare support for the few remaining customers.
“We’re providing proactive support through calls, door knocking and catering support which remains in place this evening while our teams continue on site.
“There is still a huge amount of repair work for our engineers to do to restore the final 500 or so properties. The vast majority of those will be restored tonight with a handful of cases running into tomorrow. Damage is still widespread covering parts of Workington, Penrith and Carlisle and we will not stop until we have connected every last customer.”
Electricity North West has also announced that all planned work on the network for this week has been cancelled. This will enable engineers to focus on the final repairs and prevent any further disruption to customers.
Anyone who received notification about a planned power cut this week between Monday-Friday should be aware that the work will not go ahead and your electricity supply will not be interrupted.
Steph added: “Thank you to everyone for your patience and your praise for our engineers who have been working extremely hard in challenging conditions, including cold and heavy rain today. If anyone is still without power, they should contact us as soon as possible.”
Why might I have been told my power was restored when it wasn’t?
After the storm some people received messages saying their power had been restored when it was still off. Electricity North West said this is due to ‘hidden faults’ on the network – additional damage, further down the line, which is only discovered after damage to larger lines has been fixed. Electricity North West has shared a video of one of its control managers explaining this further: Nested faults explanation
How do I claim compensation, and how much will I get?
The rules on compensation for power cuts are set nationally by the energy regulator, Ofgem. Due to the severity of Storm Éowyn, Ofgem class it as a ‘Category 2 storm’ meaning that customers will be eligible for compensation payments of £85 if power has been cut off for 48 hours, and an extra £40 for every six hours afterwards. For more information, see Ofgem’s guidance.
Once all properties have been restored, Electricity North West will proactively contact customers entitled to compensation payments.
Need more information?
You can view the latest information on Storm Éowyn by visiting www.enwl.co.uk/weatherwarning. You can also get in touch with Electricity North West on X or Facebook, or by calling 105 for free from any phone.
Electricity North West offers extra support to customers through its Extra Care Register. For more information and to register go to www.enwl.co.uk/ExtraCare.
