If you suffered a prolonged power cut during the recent storms you should receive financial compensation. The following notes summarise the ‘Know your rights – power cuts’ instructions issued by Ofgem.

Sever Weather Claims

Depending on the severity of the storms, you will not be eligible to claim for the first 24 or 48 hours of loss of supply.

After that, you should receive a payment of £70 plus a further £70 for each additional period of 12 hours in which supply is not restored.

Ordinarily, compensation is capped at a maximum pay-out of £700. However, the areas severely affected by recent storm Arwen will receive additional pay-outs as listed below:

• Scotland North – compensation for customers without power for 6.5 days or more will not be capped.
• Scotland South – approx. 8000 customers without power for more than 48 hours will receive an additional £150 payment before Christmas.
• Northern Powergrid – customers who were still off-supply on 29 November may qualify for additional payments.

When Do You Need To Claim

Ordinarily, claims need to be made to your Distribution Network Operator (DNO) within 3-months. However, in the case of claims to the three DNO’s listed above, claims should be automatically processed; in which case there is no need to apply for compensation.

If the DNO does not have enough information to make a payment, you should receive a letter asking for the required details.

However, if you do not receive a letter or a compensation payment before the end of 2021, we suggest you contact your relevant DNO, see table with contact numbers below.

These are not the companies that you pay for your electricity supply. The DNO’s for Scotland and the North-East of England (the areas badly affected by storm Arwen late November 2021) are:

Area	Distribution Network Operator (DNO)	General Enquiries	Emergencies, power cuts	Website
Scotland North	SSE Power Distribution	0800 048 3515	0200 300 999	www.ssepd.co.uk
Scotland South	SP Energy Networks	0330 1010 444	0800 092 9290	www.spenergynetworks.co.uk
North-East England and Yorkshire	Northern Powergrid	0845 070 7172	0800 66 88 77 (Yorkshire 0800 375 675)	www.northernpowergrid.com

If in doubt, or if you live in other areas of the UK, your DNO will be noted on your electricity bills.

Insurance Cover

Most business owners will have some form of business interruption clause in their insurance cover. Be sure to contact your broker or insurance company to confirm you can make a claim.

Where this includes a claim for loss of profits, if you were obliged to close your business for a period of time, we can help you calculate the relevant numbers.

Non-business households may also be able to claim for any losses, for example, the contents of freezers.