UPDATE: A message on WPD’s website read: “Our teams are continuing to work flat out to restore power to 7,553 customers in the South West who are still without electricity in the aftermath of Storm Eunice.

“Our ongoing efforts to deal with the impact of Storm Eunice have unfortunately been hampered in some cases by the arrival of Storm Franklin but we are making progress throughout the day to ensure that we can restore supplies as quickly as humanly possible. 

“We are continuing to transfer teams from areas of our network that have returned to business-as-usual power cut levels to further bolster the restoration efforts in the South West, on top of the huge volumes of resources already working on the remaining incidents.” 


CUSTOMERS in the South West “will be reconnected as soon as humanly possible”.

Western Power Distribution has released an update about power cuts in the region this morning, Monday, February 21.

The company also said Storm Franklin “caused further poor weather” and “some additional power cuts”.

Thousands of properties in Somerset were left without power when Storm Eunice hit the region on Friday, February 18 and WPD said the South West “has experienced the highest number of power cuts ever recorded following a storm”.

A message on the company’s website said: “Despite another night of high winds and atrocious operating conditions our field teams have continued to work non-stop to restore customers left without power as a result of Storm Eunice.

“We have restored 503,164 customers since Friday and are working flat out to reconnect the remaining 10,929 customers as soon as possible today.

“The arrival of Storm Franklin is causing further poor weather conditions and some additional power cuts, but our East Midlands, West Midlands, and South Wales regions are now operating under normal levels.

“Customers in our South West region – which has experienced the highest number of power cuts ever recorded following a storm – will be reconnected as soon as humanly possible.

“We are continuing to transfer teams from areas of our network that have returned to business-as-usual power cut levels to further bolster the restoration efforts in the South West, on top of the huge volumes of resources already working on the remaining incidents.”

Operations Director Graham Halladay said: “We are extremely sorry that some of our customers remain without power. Despite the exceptionally long hours, our staff is working, every one of us is spurred on by the thought of the extremely difficult circumstances our customers are facing. We know that any period without power is challenging, let alone for several days, during cold conditions.”

“The situations we have encountered on site have been horrendous. Large scale damage, fallen trees, and massive volumes of debris have blocked access and impacted the network.

“Once we have been able to clear a path to begin repairs, each incident has different requirements and complex actions to be taken.

“Working on the electricity network carries inherent dangers and we must ensure that we keep our customers and staff safe at all times.

“Thousands of WPD colleagues are working exceptionally hard to work to get things fixed, away from their own loved ones for very long periods and will not stop until everyone is reconnected.

"No incidents or customers have been forgotten about. We are working through the backlog and have every available resource involved to do so as fast as we can.”

“As we assess each incident on the ground and restoration times change, we will update our information on our website and will continue to contact customers in huge volumes to keep them informed.

“We have handled over 200,000 customer calls in the last few days and have processed nearly two million hits on our website – that’s more than two months’ worth of activity in just 48 hours.

“We are continuing to proactively contact our most vulnerable customers to keep them informed and to offer meals and welfare support, with funded partnerships via the British Red Cross and other community support groups helping people across the South West.”

For live power cut information visit powercuts.westernpower.co.uk