The electricity for quite a large number of houses in the N22 part of Alexandra Park Road went off at about 9.00 last night, and was of for at least 11 hours, but now seems to be back for almost everyone. They tried to change fuses in the sub-station, but that wasn't the problem - they have had to dig up the pavement in the street and re-route the power round a fault in the cables. Some houses in the affected area did not go off, because there are several different supply cables, and not all were affected.
It's worth saying that UKPowerNet do do their best to tell you what's happening if you get in touch with them (0800 0280 247 it says on the Emergency Numbers page of our old copy of Yellow Pages - given there as EDF London Area). They check first whether there is anyone affected by medical or mobility difficulties, and whether you've got torches to get around with, so they take safety seriously. Then they will send text updates if you want on the progress of the job and when they think they wll finish, which is useful. There is even a support van which will heat water and food if your an all-electric household. (I didn't try it, but it was there.) It's not entirely clear whether what they've done is a permanent fix, or whether they will heve to continue working. Before they could start digging they had to get traffic lights out in the road (at 2.00 or 3.00 in the morning), so there are still some obstructions.
I'm particularly miffed that after putting up solar panels and a battery, which after a sunny day is giving us more than enough home-produced electricity to last overnight, this is useless if the mains supply goes down because key bits of the system don't work!
Replies
Sorry to hear about the power cut, Alex, but thank you for the helpful info about UKPowerNet.