Power cut
in London
If you have no electricity at all, check whether it is a power cut before you call anybody out. It takes a minute, it is free, and most of the time it saves you the cost of an electrician you did not need.
Check when your power is coming back on
The cables, substations and fuses that bring electricity to your street are not owned by the company that bills you. They belong to the distribution network operator, and across London, the south east and the east of England that is UK Power Networks.
They publish every power cut they know about, live, with the area affected and an estimated time for the power coming back. It is free, it needs nothing but your postcode, and it will tell you in seconds whether anyone is already on their way to fix this.
Check the live power cut map(opens UK Power Networks in a new tab)No internet, or you would rather speak to somebody? Ring 105. It is free from any landline or mobile in England, Scotland and Wales, and it puts you straight through to the operator for your area. UK Power Networks can also be reached on 0800 31 63 105.
How it works
Step one
Enter your postcode
Put your postcode into the search on their power cut page and pick your address from the list.
Step two
Look for your area on the map
Cuts are marked where they are happening, and planned work is shown separately from a fault. If nothing is marked over you, they do not know of a cut at your address.
Step three
Open it for a restoration time
Selecting the cut gives you what is known so far and an estimate for the power being back. You can also ask them to text you when it is.
If there is no power cut
Then the supply is reaching your property and the problem is on your side of the meter. That is our work rather than theirs, and there is no point waiting for a network crew who are not coming.
Any of these means the fault is yours, not the network’s:
- Your neighbours have power and you do not
- Only part of the house is dead — the sockets are out but the lights are on, or one room has gone
- The main switch or an RCD trips again as soon as you reset it
- It went off with a bang, a flash, or a smell of burning
- The street came back on and you did not
Ring us and we will tell you on the phone what to switch off before we set off. There is no call-out fee, the line is answered by a person whatever the hour, and if what you describe sounds like a network fault after all we will say so rather than take the booking.
07502 396654Two things worth knowing
You may be owed money
Network operators work to guaranteed standards set by Ofgem, and payments for a long cut are often made automatically rather than claimed. In normal weather a cut running past twelve hours attracts a payment, with more for each further period off supply, and there is a separate one if you have had more than four cuts of three hours or longer in a year. Severe weather has its own thresholds.
The current figures, from Ofgem(opens in a new tab)The Priority Services Register
Free, run by the network operators, and much better joined before you need it than during. It covers anyone relying on electrically powered medical equipment, households with children under five, people of pensionable age, and anyone with a disability, chronic illness or sensory impairment — and you can register temporarily if the need is short term. It gets you priority updates, a twenty-four-hour line, and practical help where somebody depends on powered equipment and the cut runs long.
Register, or check if you qualify(opens in a new tab)One last thing while you wait: switch off and unplug the oven, the immersion and anything expensive, and leave a single light on so you know when it is back. Supply does not always return gently, and a house drawing everything at once the moment it does is how a power cut turns into a tripped breaker.
Power back on, but something is not right?
A supply that returns unevenly can damage what was plugged into it. If a socket or an accessory is warm or discoloured, stop using it and ring us.