Storm Arwen: Electricity firms 'unacceptable' response criticised

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Image source, PA Media

Image caption,

Storm Arwen split a tree in two at New York in North Tyneside, damaging a nearby car

The electricity firms' response to Storm Arwen, which left more than one million homes without power, was "unacceptable" at times, a report says.

The storm brought severe wind, rain and snow across north-east England, Cumbria and Scotland at the end of November.

An interim report by the Department for Business said waiting times to contact operators were too high and criticised the length of power cuts.

And although compensation of £24.5m had been paid, it had taken too long.

Image source, PA Media

Image caption,

Some people also made advantage of the snowy weather

The report details the scale of the damage caused by the storm, showing 59,101 homes were without power for more than 48 hours and 3,032 for a week or more.

Northumberland and Aberdeenshire both saw wind gusts of more than 90mph and 100mph respectively, and some people were left without water and communications as other essential services "lacked full resilience" to the scale of the power cuts.

The report comes a day after thousands of people were left without power after Storm Dudley hit.

Image source, PA Media

Image caption,

People were advised to stay away from the coast as huge waves were whipped up by the wind, as seen at Roker in Sunderland

Wait times for some customers to contact their operator were unacceptably high.
Operators needed to take better notice of the "unusual" northerly wind as a risk, and better account for wind direction as well as speed and duration.
There were unacceptably long power cuts to some households, especially those in rural areas.
Firms should set up a better process for compensation.

This is an interim report with a final report coming at the end of March, alongside a further report from watchdog Ofgem which is looking at whether operators complied with legal standards around areas such as infrastructure investment.

If those were breached, Ofgem will consider if "enforcement action needs to be taken against them" and it can fine firms up to 10% of their turnover.

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