Storm Isha update for central southern England from SSEN Distribution – 10pm

SSEN has restored power to 35,000 homes in central Southern England following the impacts of Storm Isha.  

Teams from across the licence area have made excellent progress throughout the course of today, with restoration efforts now focused on the final few properties that remain without power. 

Since Sunday night, teams of SSEN linespeople and tree cutters have worked round the clock in affected areas to identify and repair faults to the network, then restore power to customers as quicky and safely as possible.  

SSEN engineers have now restored power supplies to almost all customers impacted since Storm Isha began to track across SSEN’s central southern England patch on Sunday 21 January, which brought coastal wind speeds of over 80mph and gusts reaching 70mph inland.

SSEN are continuing to work into the night, and efforts will resume from first light tomorrow in a bid to reconnect any final customers who remain off supply.

Ahead of the storm, SSEN increased both its staff on the ground and in its contact centres, with teams located in areas that were forecast to be affected and to enable quicker restoration times. Additionally, over 9,000 people on the Priority Services Register in central southern England were contacted by SSEN to offer advice and assistance.   

Eliane Algaard, Director or Operations South said;

“Storm Isha caused considerable disruption to our network in central southern England, and I would like to say thank you to our customers for their patience while we worked through some challenging conditions today to reconnect them, as quickly and safely as possible.”  

As part of the support package for customers affected by power cuts, people who have had no power for more than 12 hours are entitled to £30 per person for every day without power, to cover the cost of food and drink. People should keep hold of receipts and claim costs back at  www.ssen.co.uk/stormclaim 

Once final fault assessments are carried out, any customers who were without power for over 24 hours will be entitled to compensation under the regulated Guaranteed Standards of Performance. 

Customers will receive £80, with a further £40 for every subsequent six-hour period they were off supply. Customers do not need to contact SSEN to request compensation. This will be processed as quickly as possible. Anyone who is eligible for compensation under these Standards and doesn't hear from us within the next few weeks should get in touch.