22 January 2007 00:00 UPDATE – Around 3,000 customers off in Central Networks area, affected Thursday, Friday or Saturday – 1200hrs

Central Networks currently has 3,250 customers left without power, having been affected by bad weather on Thursday, Friday or yesterday.

Engineers are now in their fourth day of working 16 hour days and nights to get customers back on and have restored almost 450,000 to power in that time.

Jim Lightfoot, Director of Operations and Asset Management, said: “We’re now getting very close to clearing all of those faults but it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that some customers will be off power tonight.

“I can assure everyone that we’ve been working as hard as we can to get them back on as quickly as we can but I can also understand their frustrations – especially as we lost power to some more customers overnight when the winds picked up again.

“It’s also possible that some customers will lose power again next week when we carry out permanent repairs and I can only apologise for that but it’s vital that we do that work.”

County Approximate numbers
Coventry & Warwickshire 50
Derbyshire 500
Gloucestershire 150
Herefordshire and Worcestershire 450
Leicestershire 50
Lincolnshire 1,200
Northamptonshire 50
Nottinghamshire 500
Shropshire 100
Staffordshire 200
West Midlands 0


Customers are advised to stay away from any fallen power cables that they might come across and to let Central Networks know locations. Central Networks can be contacted on 0800 056 8090 (East Midlands) or 0800 328 1111 (West Midlands).

Ends

Notes to editors
Power industry regulator Ofgem’s severe weather compensation rules for customers are now in operation. Customers who have been off power for 48 continuous hours will receive £25, with a further £25 for every continuous 12 hours thereafter, to a maximum of £200.
Central Networks will contact all customers who qualify for compensation directly.
* Central Networks is the electricity distribution company for central England, distributing electricity to 4.9m customers.

The media can call the below numbers for more information:
Jonathan Smith on 024 7618 3676
Out of hours, the media should ring 024 7642 4000 and ask to speak to the duty press officer