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Priority Services Register and loss of Supply

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I noticed from lemonizer's post that a customer is paid £30 if the electricity supply is cut off without notice, but no payment if notice is given.

This raises the question: what if the customer is on the Priority Services Register?

I know that the water company is pretty proactive and does inform us religiously by SMS, email and phone even though it has never resulted in loss of Supply.

We do have a small generator that allows us to maintain lighting and gas boiler if we know we will loose power. The DNO has never contacted us even when power has failed for 12 hours. Gas has of course never failed so we have never lost heating or hot water.

Please note we are not interested in compensation just the ability to take alleviating measures to protect ourselves.
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Comments

  • Gerry1
    Gerry1 Posts: 10,848 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 27 January 2022 at 7:56PM

    The DNO has never contacted us even when power has failed for 12 hours.
    Depending on where the problem is, they may not even know your power has failed if it hasn't been reported.
  • Verdigris
    Verdigris Posts: 1,725 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Third Anniversary Name Dropper
    Has the DNO got your correct contact details?
  • An interesting query by Verdigris for we rejoined the PSR through a gas company that bills us for electricity and a French electric company that charges us for natural gas. But yes we have a confirmation letter from Western Power with our mobiles and our landline. Landline number will be useless once Openreach alter their system.

    The point I think I'm trying to make is that the PSR only seems to work well with water and not at all with power supply.

    We of course know when the electricity fails because most of the intruder alarms in the village inform us.
  • jbuchanangb
    jbuchanangb Posts: 1,338 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    When my power went of at 6pm last Friday, the person at the DNO noticed that I was on their PSR when I called to ask about the situation. The power was restored in about 80 minutes so I didn't get to explore what advantage if any there might have been from being on the PSR. Their compensation scheme doesn't offer anything until power has been off for 12 hours.
  • QrizB
    QrizB Posts: 18,034 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    Their compensation scheme doesn't offer anything until power has been off for 12 hours.
    For unplanned outages, those are the rules.
    N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Vodafone BB / iD mobile. Ripple Kirk Hill member.
    2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 3.6kw inverter. 34 MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.
    Not exactly back from my break, but dipping in and out of the forum.
    Ofgem cap table, Ofgem cap explainer. Economy 7 cap explainer. Gas vs E7 vs peak elec heating costs, Best kettle!
  • DNOs, well Western Power anyway, aren't proactive. They don't contact PSR customers when there's a problem.

    I know that they can't reconnect my home to the grid as a priority over my neighbours because that's not possible. So the PSR is a big con by Ofgem, by the DNOs, and by the suppliers (billing companies).

    Looks good on paper but in practice.....
  • spiro
    spiro Posts: 6,405 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    There are dozens of reasons you can be on the PSR so what they will do will obviously depend on your category(s). 
    What are you registered for?
    IT Consultant in the utilities industry specialising in the retail electricity market.

    4 Credit Card and 1 Loan PPI claims settled for £26k, 1 rejected (Opus).
  • spiro said:
    There are dozens of reasons you can be on the PSR so what they will do will obviously depend on your category(s). 
    What are you registered for?

    Old, disabled, long term illness, and essential supply requirement.  Happy, enjoying life, good friends, and income exceedes expenditure.

  • jbuchanangb
    jbuchanangb Posts: 1,338 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Back when I lived in the area of UK Power Networks an underground cable fault outside my house cut me off. As soon as they realised that it was going to be a long job they brought in a generator, put it on my drive and I had power. Took about 2 days to get it fixed, and I believe that part of the street was disconnected for an hour or so during the repair process. I considered that to be good service.
  • spiro
    spiro Posts: 6,405 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    spiro said:
    There are dozens of reasons you can be on the PSR so what they will do will obviously depend on your category(s). 
    What are you registered for?

    Old, disabled, long term illness, and essential supply requirement.  Happy, enjoying life, good friends, and income exceedes expenditure.

    The only one that might get special consideration is essential supply but some people have different vies of essential, so say a medical fridge would not be high priority for some time because it keeps stuff chilled for up to 24hrs if it is rarely opened.
    IT Consultant in the utilities industry specialising in the retail electricity market.

    4 Credit Card and 1 Loan PPI claims settled for £26k, 1 rejected (Opus).
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