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FENSTANTON PARISH NEWS ARCHIVE

POWER CUTS IN FENSTANTON

Posted: 06/01/2009


Around midnight on Friday 2nd January 2008, a severe voltage reduction occurred on just one of the 3 phases. This resulted in one in every three houses at the Chequer Street end of the village loosing all effective power and included at least one business – the King Bill.

EDF [who manage the supply services] were alerted to the fact that at least one house and all street lights in Chequer Street were out, but the operator felt it might be an isolated case, because no-one else had bothered to telephone.

A further contact with EDF at 07:45 Saturday morning, and still no other person had bothered to call and then an hour later, the calls began to escalate - presumably as people began to wake up to their predicament ... ... ...

An engineer was despatched and arrived at the Chequer Street sub-station at 08:20. He determined there was a need to call in a team of linesmen who arrived at 11:00.

Failed equipment was replaced and supplies reinstated by approx. 12:25.

Had more persons reported this problem when it first occurred the services would have been reinstated in the early hours of Saturday morning and those relying upon an electrical supply for their gas, oil and other heating systems would have not been too disadvantaged when they awoke after what was then the coldest night of the year.

According to EDF it is a common thing for most people to adopt a lazy stance & "leave it to someone else to call" resulting in a delay in correcting the problem. Until EDF are aware of a problem and receive sufficient calls, they are unable to prioritise and action remedial work.

We have been asked by EDF to use this opportunity to make EVERYONE aware that in the event of power failure, or worse, flickering or low-voltage supplies, anyone affected must call the FREE telephone number and report the problem,


0800 7 838 838

Next time – get on the ‘phone without delay!
 

 

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