How often do you get power cuts where you live?

[Powercutsaibu]

Out of interest how many power cuts does your area have? I am in a northern village on the outskirts of a large city, I would describe my setting as semi rural, as in we have village vibes, loads of farm land nearby, country pubs and narrow b roads but 20 minutes by car you are in the city centre.

We get a power cut of more than 15 minutes monthly, and a blip where it goes off for a second our so every couple of weeks. It’s not my property it’s whole street or postcode area. Is this the norm now?

I have lived in the same area 15 years and moved three times (within the same start of post code) and it’s only the last couple of years it’s gotten this bad. A couple months ago we was out of power for hours at a time across multiple days.

My recent move, I am just have electric and after yet another 2 hour power cut this morning I am panicking a bit heating in the winter!

Just seen this thread, interesting as we've just had the power drop out....

Rural location. Multiple times a year particularly in winter when it’s often caused by swans flying into power lines 😢

About 3 miles outside Bristol. We have them every few weeks. However the power lines to our area are overhead rather than underground. It's not unknown for squirrels to chew through the wires.

OP, as you're all-electric and worried about winter, it's worth checking whether you can join the Priority Services Register with your electricity network operator. It's free, and if you qualify they can give you extra help and updates during a cut. Ring 105 to report it or get an estimate of when it'll be back, as it's quicker than waiting for the website to update. For warmth, a couple of hot water bottles, a decent fleece blanket and picking one room to keep warm go a long way for a few hours. Frequent short cuts on one street can also be a fault the network will investigate if enough people report it, so keep reporting them.

We have a wooden chalet as a holiday home and we had the roof redone a few years ago - a few squirrel skeletons were found alongside some nibbled power cables - little buggers - they won’t do it again though.

In the 1970s. Three day week, fuel crisis, strikes. Happy days!

Had my off grid switch installed yesterday which is making me feel better. Already had two power cuts this year so I suspect there are more to come.

22 in the last year. We live in a village but on a main commuter line into London which is 20 miles away. Last week we had to have tea out as the power was off for so long and two days later went to the gym early to shower then work out then shower there. Hot weather, wind any blooming excuse really for it going it off. It’s highly disruptive and they want to put 100s more houses in the village 🤣

I live in a medium sized town and had 1 short powercut in the last 20 years.
Before that I lived on the outskirts of a large city and there was a short power cut once and before that it was the 1970s and I lived with my parents in a small town and can remember quite a few (because it was the 1970s).
So since the late 70s I've experienced 2 short power cuts. It's not something I ever worry about.

Almost never, but the village next to mine has almost weekly power cuts. There is something wrong with the aging network and a huge bit of work is needed to stabilise their supply.

The last time I was aware of a power cut was a New Years Eve and I was getting ready to go out. It was before 2002 (I remember because of the house I was living in at the time). I live in London.

Twice in the 20yrs in this house. I grew up not far away, and no less rural, and we had them all the time. But we get weird things a lot, where everything will turn on or you need to reset the clocks or something.

Never since we moved here 2 years ago.

i live in a small town. Power blips about once a year. Occasional loss from storms and high winds in winter. Previously in a small village - several power cuts for hours each year.

I live on the North Yorkshire/East Lancashire border, semi rural town. I dont even reset my oven clock anymore. We regularly get momentary blips in power where its down for about 2-3 minutes. Stormy weather can really impact us as we have loads of trees around here that fall during storms. To be honest the biggest issue is water where I am. Even though Im technically classed as living in Lancashire, we used to be in Yorkshire before 1974 so still have our supply with Yorkshire Water (though we are the furthest area they serve as united utilities take over from the next town) - i don't think they really care for us lot here as the water supply is regularly impacted by failed pumps or burst pipes and they take ages to fix. I always have to have a supply of bottled water in

One my whole life, but I've always lived in suburbia!

We live rurally and we used to get frequent power cuts, sometimes for several days at a time but they did some upgrading to the infrastructure about 10 years ago and it's been a lot better since then. I'd expect maybe 2 or 3 a year now but they're usually not more than a few hours nowadays. The worst times recently have been in storms when lots of peple have been affected and naturally they go to fix problems in more populated places first. There aren't many houses supplied by our substation so I think we are often at the bottom of the priority list which can be a bit annoying but at the same time is understandable. We have a generator (actually we have 3 - DH is a bit "belt and braces!) so it's inconvenient but not the end of the world.

We're in London and get one about once a year or two, usually quite short. We always have a lot of construction (big apartment building project currently) or roadworks/pavement works on our road. It usually doesn't get noticed except we have to reset the kitchen clocks.

We've had 2 or maybe 3 in the 16 years I've lived in this house, in a town in the South East.

We are semi rural in north west. We get cuts fairly regularly in the winter time. Our power supply is singled phased overhead lines so susceptible to storms, and the low population density means that we are not the priority if a storm in the area takes out streets in the local village that have lots of houses on them (v the four homes in my postcode). It can be a pain as we are not on mains gas and the oil fired central heating needs the electric power to work. But I would rather have this than neighbours 🤣

I’d say about every 5 years in the midlands.

Interesting how variable the answers are. None that I can remember here in Surrey.

It's obvious the creaking distribution network is never going to support the needs of electric car charging that the government is pushing us all towards. We're heading for big trouble with this. (And no, I'm not anti EV)

Rarely. We have lived in our house for 23 years and I think I can count the number of power cuts we have had on one hand.

I'm also in a northern village. Our infrastructure is old and we often get poles and power lines down in winter gales and other issues, so in the last three or four years have been getting power cuts several times in the year. Prior to that, not so often

I’ve never experienced a power cut in all my 50+ years (other than the lights going off but immediately coming back on). I live in the suburbs.