Are you winter ready?
We’re advising businesses to prepare ahead for how power cuts may affect their operations. To make sure your business is prepared, we’ve developed a one-page winter preparedness guide to help start preparations, beginning with a business resilience assessment.
You can download the guide in English or in Welsh.
In the event of interruptions to the electricity supply, either unexpected or planned, our expert engineers will be out working to repair, replace and restore any damaged powerlines.
Where possible, we work hard to help our customers prepare by letting them know about any planned power outages in advance, but sometimes that’s not possible – so it’s important we help prepare customers for what to do during unexpected outages, like in the event of severe weather damaging the networks.
In the case of unexpected power cuts, you can check our website Power Cut in Your Area? for information or Call 105 to speak to one of our team 24/7, 365 days a year.
Emergency power cuts
National Grid is responsible for making sure there is enough power generation to meet customer demand by balancing the energy market in mainland UK. In their winter outlook National Grid ESO raised the possibility of the need for planned national power cuts, to manage the scenario of energy demand outstripping the supply available.
Before any emergency planned power cut instruction is given, National Grid ESO will always try to take alternative steps to protect customers. These could include:
- Encouraging additional generation through the supply market
- Asking heavy industrial users to limit their demand during peak periods
- Reducing domestic power demand – through behaviour change or reducing voltage by small, undetectable percentage.
Regardless of the source of a power cut, businesses will benefit from preparing their operations ahead of time. The winter preparedness guide is a starting point and further useful information can be found here: