Current situation
Today Northern Powergrid told me there are 1,400 households left to be connected back to the grid – that is across their entire Northumberland, Tyne and Wear region. I know some people experienced further outages over the weekend, but those I have spoken to seem to have power back again.
Northern Powergrid has revised their timetable for reconnecting everyone to Tuesday 7th December (tomorrow). However, this is weather dependent and depends on them not discovering further damage as their make the final repairs.
Door to door welfare checks
The welfare teams continue to go door to door, ensuring everyone is aware of the support and help available.
If you are worried about friends and family, please ask them to get in touch either with Northumberland County Council or with my team. We can arrange a welfare check. If you are not sure if your neighbour needs help, please go and check on them if you can.
You can contact NCC via:
Contact Centre (for general queries): 0345 6006400
Northumberland Communities Together (for anyone struggling with food supplies or other essentials) Mon-Fri 9am - 6pm: 01670 620015
One Call (for concerns about vulnerable residents or safeguarding issues): 01670 536400
If you or anyone you know is especially vulnerable and might need assistance with sourcing a generator or supplies, please contact my team or call 105.
Compensation and reimbursements
As you may know from my previous updates, Ofgem has agreed to lift the cap on compensation. The daily rate is £140 per home per day of power outage. This was previously capped at a maximum of £700. This cap has been lifted.
Northern Powergrid and Scottish Power will be proactively contacting customers about this compensation. I would expect them to be doing so once the reconnection work is complete and they can turn their resources to compensation.
Please remember this is in addition to reimbursements they are making for meals (£15 per person per meal maximum), generators and alternative accommodation. Please send your receipts and details of your claim to: [email protected]