More than 200,000 properties lose power during festive storms

More than 200,000 properties have suffered a power cut as a result of storms over the Christmas period, the Energy Networks Association (ENA) has confirmed.

There have been eight named storms since 25 September last year, double the total number of named storms in the 2022/23 season and more than the 2021/22 season (seven) when Storm Arwen hit.

The latest, storms Gerrit and Henk, have caused several fatalities and major disruption.

Industry trade body the ENA said that during Storm Gerrit, which was named by the Met Office on Boxing Day, 40,000 homes lost power.

According to ENA’s latest update at 2pm on Wednesday (3 January), just under 2,400 homes were reported as being without power thanks to Storm Henk. Since the start of the disruption caused by the storm, more than 170,200 homes have had power restored.

ENA spokesman Ross Easton said: “Some parts of the country have seen winds in excess of 80mph, and it’s the debris carried by this intensive wind which has caused significant damage to power lines in places.”

Frequent storms are posing major issues for distribution network operators and their customers alike.

The worst, Storm Arwen, hit the UK in November 2021 and caused more damage to the network than any other storm over the last 15 years, with wind speeds of almost 100mph.

More than 1 million homes and businesses lost power as a result of Arwen, and while the majority of customers were reconnected within a few days, thousands were left without power for more than a week.

In June 2022 Ofgem and the Energy Emergencies Executive Committee (E3C) published the final reports from their reviews of networks’ responses to the storm.

Recommendations included the development of a new physical resilience standard, the stress testing of networks’ websites and call centres, and reforms to compensation arrangements.