Helping you prepare this winter

National Grid ESO constantly monitors the required amount of electricity needed to be able to power homes and businesses across Great Britain, this is known as ‘demand’. At the same time, it also manages the amount of electricity being generated. The amount of generated electricity needs to exceed the amount of electricity demand to ensure there is a reliable electricity supply available across the country. Although rare, there are sometimes occasions when the demand for electricity is higher than the amount of electricity being generated. When this happens, there are several steps the industry takes to balance the difference to keep power flowing across the country. Contingency plans are in place for backup power supply and notice can be issued to ask electricity generators to provide more power. If these steps fail, which is unlikely, local network operators, which is Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks in your case, would be instructed to implement a emergency or planned power cuts to share the supply of electricity across the UK.

The war in Ukraine has led to a European crisis on energy supplies. Although Britain is less reliant on Russian gas than other countries, it normally imports gas and electricity from Europe during the coldest months. In its Winter Outlook publication, National Grid ESO outlined a worst-case scenario which stated that if there were to be a very cold period with significantly reduced gas supplies from Europe impacting the generation of electricity there is a greater potential for emergency customer disconnections to be necessary. It has stressed this remains an unlikely scenario.

Based on the specific situation, there are two instructions we may receive from the Electricity System Operator, one where we receive planned notification the evening before and can notify customers in advance, and the other, an emergency instruction where we are required to disconnect customers under a short timeframe which may be immediate.

Each electricity meter is assigned an alphabetical ‘block letter’. In the event of an emergency power cut, different block letters are timetabled to be without power for a three-hour period. Depending on the severity of the situation, power may be interrupted multiple times over the period of the event which may last several days. You can also find your rota block and see what areas are affected around you at myrotablock.ssen.co.uk.

If a planned rota disconnection is initiated, a timetable will be available at powercut105.com and on our website ssen.co.uk. The timetable will tell you when you will be without power, and when there is a risk, you may be without power. Your power might be switched off or reconnected around 30 minutes before or after the published time depending on national electricity use at that time. This is because of the need to phase disconnections and reconnections, creating a short overlap.

As stated above, this is a worst-case scenario, and it is likely National Grid ESO will not need to implement planned power cuts this winter. However, if they do, a robust plan has been established to minimise the length of time you would be without power - typically around three hours at a time. You do not need to do anything - the power will be turned off and back on automatically.

We have plans in place to be able to communicate to our customers quickly if this situation evolves. If you have provided us with a mobile phone number, you’ll receive a text message from us and we'll provide as much notice as possible. You'll also hear about it on the news and announcements from National Grid ESO and Government, where advice will also be provided.

A very limited number of sites are protected from emergency power cuts. These are typically locations which are deemed to be critical national infrastructure, such as air traffic control centres and major hospital facilities with accident and emergency departments. Domestic properties are not eligible for this as there is a very specific set of requirements which include providing national or regional critical services.