PRIME Minister Boris Johnson has pledged that all households impacted by Storm Arwen will be reconnected to power supplies by the end of today – despite Northern Powergrid’s latest estimates suggesting that response work to get communities back up and running could still be taking place tomorrow evening.
For the last ten days – some houses in County Durham, North Yorkshire and the North East have been without power as a direct result of Storm Arwen wreaking havoc – felling trees, knocking down power lines and causing extensive property damage.
At the height of the power outage, 240,000 houses were left without electricity and heat – plunging families across the region into darkness and leaving many more without food, power or means to contact loved ones.
Read more: Northern Powergrid: Storm Barra may cause more power cuts
Despite Northern Powergrid working to reconnect houses back to the main network over the last ten days, 700 houses remain without power today – with several patches of County Durham having hundreds of houses still in total darkness.
Last night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed to getting the final 700 homes back on to the Northern Powergrid by the end of today – highlighting that the target was agreed by the CEO of Northern Powergrid, Phil Jones, during a meeting yesterday.
Mr Johnson also noted that he’d spoken to Northern Powergrid about its preparation for Storm Barra, as high winds and rain are set to batter the UK later tonight.
Sending a post out on social media site Twitter at 6.30pm, Mr Johnson said: “This afternoon I spoke to Phil Jones, the CEO of Northern Powergrid, to discuss the continuing disruption as a result of Storm Arwen as well as their preparations for Storm Barra.
“I expressed my concern that more than 1,000 homes are still without power and was assured they would be reconnected tomorrow at the latest.
“I also asked for assurances that the energy supply companies were putting in place measures to limit any potential further disruption to households as a result of Storm Barra.
“I am grateful for the continuing work of emergency teams and volunteers who are working tirelessly to restore power to the remaining homes and welcome Ofgem’s review into the response to Arwen.”
Mr Johnson’s post on social media was also echoed by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng MP, who, last night confirmed that the “unacceptable” power shortages would be concluded by tonight.
He said: “While we are now expecting all remaining customers will be reconnected by tomorrow night, it is completely unacceptable it has taken this long.
“We've not seen an event like this for 60 years - but the response from those on the ground has been extraordinary In NE England, thousands of engineers have installed 20km of new wiring, 300 new poles and deployed 250 generators – despite extreme weather conditions.
“But the length of time it has taken to restore power has been utterly infuriating.
"Both Ofgem and my Department have launched reviews into the Storm Arwen response Ofgem will not hold back from enforcement action if their review shows network operator failures.”
The Government’s comments about restoring power come as Northern Powergrid’s interactive map has hinted that up to 140 properties in County Durham and the wider North East could still be without power until tomorrow (Wednesday, December 8) at 10pm.
Some of the postcodes included in the list of 140 homes are in DH8, DL13, DL15 and NE locations.
A spokesperson for Northern Powergrid said: “These are previously given estimated restoration times that we provided; however, we have indicated in our updates to media and on our Storm Arwen page and via our customer service teams who are speaking directly with those customers still affected that we are doing everything we can to get them back on supply today in advance of these times.”
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