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Some homes will remain without power until at least Friday following the widespread damage to the electricity network during Storm Arwen.
The Energy Networks Associations (ENA) said engineers have been undertaking repairs at around 4,500 individual sites after strong winds, falling trees and airborne debris downed overhead power lines and inflicted damage to substations.
The trade body said the destruction has been “catastrophic” in some places, with 100 electricity poles being snapped in half in just one location.
Network operators reconnected another 12,000 homes on Tuesday night, meaning supplies have been restored to 97% of the homes affected by outages.
However, the ENA said 27,000 homes were still without power as of 5pm on Wednesday evening (1 December). It said supplies will be restored to the “vast majority” by the end of this week but warned that some, particularly single or small groups of houses in rural areas, will take longer to reconnect.
The association reiterated its advice that these households should seek alternative accommodation if possible and said network operators will reimburse them for reasonable expenses they incur.
ENA director Ross Easton said: “As the cold weather continues, our absolute priority continues to be supporting and reconnecting customers over the coming days. Our teams are working flat out. Welfare centres and hot food are being provided, with the energy network companies working in partnership with local resilience forums, emergency services, local authorities and the British Red Cross.
“Since the storm commenced there has been a mammoth effort from thousands of engineers and support staff, deploying equipment like mobile generators and teams of people from across the country to restore power to as many people as quickly and safely as possible.”
Electricity North West said it has secured emergency accommodation for up to 300 customers at Ulverston in Cumbria.
Stephanie Trubshaw, customer director and incident manager at Electricity North West, said: “The devastation caused to our power network by Storm Arwen has been unlike anything we’ve ever seen, and we’re continuing to discover more damage needing repairs.
“Our people, including hundreds of additional engineers we’ve sourced from across the country, are working flat out to restore power to as many people as quickly as possible, and that work is continuing.”
She added: “I understand the frustrations of customers about the restoration times and we have teams working around the clock providing us with information to ensure those times are as accurate as possible.
“In the meantime, we are also working hard to help customers who need additional support, providing food vans and community hubs where they’re needed, and now securing emergency accommodation for up to 300 people.”
The ENA said networks have received more than 82,000 calls per day via the free 105 telephone line for power cuts since the beginning of Storm Arwen, with more than 16,000 calls being managed per hour during peak times.
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