National Grid

chrisrsmith

This is copy of an email I sent to MSE but the auto response implied that it could take ages to get a reply so I thought I'd post it here too see if there's any response(s) 😀

Hi

I have an issue that deserves investigating and reporting as it is critical.
I and my fellow neighbours plus local adjacent village population have been experiencing power interruptions for 6 nights now. The interruptions to the electricity supply can last from 10's of minutes to just a couple of minutes and can be once or a couple of times per night. 
The issue is that these interruptions occur always during the early hours whenever consumers utilise the lower electricity charges. However, the smart meters go off, the appliances scheduled to come on, don't come on including hot water heaters. All clocks are reset, lights need resetting, the smart meters lose their connection to the electricity supplier and so far they haven't managed to relink the meters. 
As a consequence, users have to switch on their appliances during the day at peak rate and get disturbed sleep with smart devices restarting, printers coming back on etc etc all due to the power blips and routers going on/off etc. We all need to then go to work! 
I contacted National Grid '105' during last week and was told four times that the issue was due to a tree damaging a power line. On Friday 24/7/26 I received a call from a local national Grid distribution office in Hereford whom told me the same story but, as they were closed until the Monday, I should contact '105' again if the issue continued. It continued over the weekend. This morning I called the local office who now tell me that the issue is due to a transformer update in a local village and that this would go on for several weeks.
This is totally unacceptable - can you look into this please? 

QrizB

I'm sure it's a bit of an annoyance but unless the power cuts last the full 7 hours of Economy 7 (or the entire duration of the off-peak period for similar tariffs) your ALCS-switched appliances should turn back on with the power.

the smart meters lose their connection to the electricity supplier and so far they haven't managed to relink the meters.

This should not be happening. Smart meters should automatically reconnect when the power comes back on.

This is totally unacceptable - can you look into this please?

Have you checked your DNO's outage map? Is there anything recorded for your area?

TadleyBaggie

I thought the National Grid were like OpenReach in that they don't work with individual consumers but via the provider?

Robin9

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082500#Comment_82082500

National Grid are the DNO for much of the Midlands, East Midlands and South West

Robin9

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082401#Comment_82082401

Put your post code into the outage map - National Grid Fault Map - and see what history there is.

As an ex DNO engineer - sounds like trees

chrisrsmith

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082401#Comment_82082401

Octopus have stated that this can occur and they need to reset the connection at their end.

chrisrsmith

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082500#Comment_82082500

No, they also deal directly with end user

squirrelpie

National Grid is a holding company that confuses people because it used to be the name of the whole national grid, and it (National Grid Electricity Transmission) still owns the high voltage network, but nowadays it is also a company that is the DNO for some particular areas. As such it (National Grid Electricity Distribution) is required to operate the 105 telephone service in those areas, for example.

Robin9

Interruptions of about a minute suggest to me that the automatic equipment is doing its job- detecting a temporary problem eg lightning, birds, straw blown into line, trees ; 10 mins suggest that the network is being re-energised remotely at a control room. The suggested transformer problem doesn't sound likely to me - they usually fail, sometimes dramatically..

The transient problems would suggest the need for a patrol , looking at the line from ground level - time consuming and best done in daylight.

Do let us know if you have issues again

chrisrsmith

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082401#Comment_82082401

National Grid have confirmed Transformer upgrade has failed. Next attempt to replace transformer c. Octopus 26

debitcardmayhem

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82083856#Comment_82083856

Is that the next fix from 🐙