National Grid says sorry to Whissendine residents who had four power cuts in a fortnight

Tuesday, 24 January 2023 23:47

A fault at the Oakham Road substation has now been repaired, but not before a temporary generator which was serving 57 properties failed three times. All have been offered compensation.

Following power problems in Whissendine, we contacted National Grid for comment. They sent us this statement:

‘The Oakham Road substation at Whissendine failed on Sunday 8 January due to a fault with a component part. This caused power to be lost to 140 properties in the village. Of these, 83 had their supplies restored within eight hours using a process known as ‘switching’ where electricity is re-routed around the fault.

For the remaining 57 customers, we installed a generator to supply electricity using a temporary connection while repairs were carried out to the substation. Unfortunately, these repairs were interrupted by several days of sub zero temperatures which made it impossible to lay the concrete for the substation and made it necessary to keep the generator in use for longer than planned. During this time, the generator unfortunately experienced mechanical issues on three occasions which caused further short interruptions to power supplies.

As a result of this, we contacted all 57 residents to apologise for the disruption and have offered them a one-off payment to compensate them for the inconvenience caused. We understand the frustration felt by customers during these power cuts and are sorry that our customer service fell below the high levels that they have rightly come to expect from us.

The substation has now been repaired and re-energised and all customers are once again connected to a secure electricity supply. Work is continuing to put the finishing touches to the substation site but is not expected to affect power supplies and is scheduled to be completed in the next couple of weeks.’