Storm Austen update for central southern England - Saturday 24 October

Our engineers have continued to work throughout the day, reconnecting customers who remain without power supplies as a result of Storm Austen.

Since the beginning of the first named storm of the year, our engineers have safely repaired and restored supplies to over 42,400 customers across our central southern England network and are continuing to work in challenging conditions to reconnect those who remain off supply.

As of 8pm this evening, 2,200 customers are awaiting restoration of their electricity supplies with expectations that half of these customers will be back on supply tonight. With wind speeds reaching up to 70mph at the peak of the storm, and fallen trees and debris blocking continuing to block roads and access tracks, our engineers are doing all they can to safely and quickly repair any damaged infrastructure and reconnect local homes and businesses.

Fallen trees are just one of the challenges facing our teams as they work to repair parts of our network damaged by Storm Austen

High winds and heavy rain are forecast for around noon today and our engineers will be working as safely and quickly as possible in these difficult conditions to repair the areas of our infrastructure which have been impacted.

By preparing early for the arrival of Storm Austen, and activating our well-rehearsed contingency plans, we’ve had teams in the affected areas ahead of the worst weather to enable them to deal with any damage to the network and subsequent faults that cause interruption to our customers’ power supplies. 

Our customer contact centres continue to run an increased number of people on shift; ready to answer your telephone calls and respond to queries on social media. Since the beginning of Storm Austen, we’ve contacted more than 490,000 customers via text and through direct calls to customers on our PSR register to provide additional guidance.

📞 How you can prepare, and how we’ll help you

If you see any damage to our equipment, please stay back, don’t touch it, and instead report it to us directly by calling 105, or via our Power Track website. Our engineers will investigate this as soon as possible.

We’d also encourage you to prepare for the possibility of disruption to supplies by:

• Saving our emergency power cut number - '105' - to your phone to report any loss of supply or damage to the electricity network.
• Visiting our Power Track Website for details of power cuts and restoration times. You can also report power cuts and network damage through Power Track.
• Visiting the "Preparing for a power cut" section on our website, where there’s a wealth of advice and information, or to chat live to one of our advisors via the Webchat service.
  
  Customers are also eligible for our Priority Services (PSR) if they:

• Are deaf or hard of hearing.
• Have a disability.
• Live with children under five.
• Are blind or partially sighted.
• Have a chronic illness.
• Use medical equipment/aids reliant on electricity.
• Are over 60.

To find out more about the PSR, click here or call 0800 294 3259.