Latest Power Cut News

Computer security researchers said Sunday they have discovered the malicious software that knocked out electricity in Ukraine’s capital last year, and warned U.S. companies that the code could be re-purposed to disrupt their GRID systems. The discovery sheds light on an incident that security experts have been watching closely, hoping to understand...

Finally the truth , just how close the UK is to major black outs. “Quite soon, sensible people will be buying their own private generators, as they do in Third World...

A real “Black Friday”! Dramatic pictures show the bizarre scene in London’s West End where a mass power cut plunged parts of the area into darkness. Restaurants, theatres, bars, homes and businesses in the Soho and Piccadilly Circus areas were among the affected buildings. Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2016/11/25/massive-power-cut-in-london-leaves-soho-and-piccadilly-circus-in-darkness-6283123/#ixzz4Si7EVcX2...

Today Philip Hammond, UK Chancellor, told his audience, that there is,” now a real risk that hostile “foreign actors” were developing techniques that threaten the country’s electrical grid and airports.” The warning came within Philip Hammond’s speech, describing how the government plans to spend a previously announced £1.9bn sum on cybersecurity; it also...

The UK lost 11.4GW of coal and gas generation capacity in the three years to end of 2015, latest government data shows. Some 8.8GW of coal-fired plant came off the transmission system, alongside 2.6GW of...

Exeter’s high street has been evacuated following a power cut at 13.45 affecting Sidwell Street and Western Way. This included the John Lewis. Supplies are expected back on by 17.00. The cause of the power cut is thought to be an underground cable fault and highlights the many factors that...

In a 2,000-page report, the Climate Change Committee says flooding will destroy bridges – wrecking electricity, gas and IT connections carried on them. The chairman of the committee’s adaptation sub-committee, Prof Sir John Krebs, told BBC News: “Infrastructure could be affected in a way that interacts. “So, if you take electricity supply, the...

More than 200,000 homes were without power at the height of the winds, with thousands still awaiting reconnection due to storm Katie over Easter Many properties will remain without electricity until Tuesday because of the scale of the damage, power firms have said. Travel disruption included the closure of Dartford...

Thousands of properties were without power across south west England and transport was disrupted in the wake of Storm Katie. Brittany Ferries has cancelled its sailings from Roscoff to Plymouth, and trains between Yeovil and Exeter have also been cancelled. The Environment Agency has issued one flood warning in Devon,...

Sub Stations fires happen and when they do, they take out power for miles around. A fire at an electricity sub-station in Lincolnshire cut power to more than 16,000 homes and disrupted trains. The fire in Grantham began at 17:15 GMT and caused disruption to journeys on the East Coast...

More than 5,000 homes are without power in south-west England, south and mid-Wales and the Midlands. Western Power Distribution is attempting to restore power in difficult conditions Gusts in South-West England may reach 80mph, with high winds sweeping across the Bristol Channel area to Cardiff and Bristol. There are nearly...

Diesel farms are expected to win contracts in a capacity auction that gets underway today to avoid Massive Power loss due to lack of Grid contingency. National Grid, launches auction is intended to secure 45 gigawatts of power for a period of four years.  Companies with existing power stations and...

No power for huge areas of England Schools in the region have been closed, travel disrupted and some non-emergency hospital procedures cancelled. More rain is expected this week across the north of the UK, with 16 severe flood warnings, indicating danger to life, in place. Storm Desmond battered north-west England, as...

The UK’s remaining coal-fired power stations will be shut by 2025 with their use restricted by 2023, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has announced. Tony Lodge, who has published a report from the Centre for Policy Studies, said “Britain is on the verge of an ‘energy crisis’ with electricity demand set...

Thousands still remain without power Power engineers working through the night to deal with disruption caused by Storm Barney. Barney – the second UK storm strong enough to be named by the public – saw winds peak at 85mph on Tuesday, before conditions calmed down overnight. Homes were left without...

Blackout fears as factories are paid NOT to use electricity in ‘last reason’ bid to keep lights on across UK. National Grid was yesterday forced to use new ‘last resort’ measures to keep the lights on in homes across the country. Major industries were for the first time asked to...

Britain was forced to rely on new “last resort” measures to keep the lights on for the first time on Wednesday after coal power plants broke down and wind farms produced less than one per cent of required electricity. National Grid used a new emergency scheme to pay large businesses...

National Grid is asking the UK power industry to provide more electricity later on Wednesday. National Grid has issued a Notification of Inadequate System Margin (NISM) as a result of multiple energy plant breakdowns. “This is part of our standard toolkit for balancing supply and demand,” the company said. “It...

The articles below appeared in this weekend’s Mail on Sunday (11th October 2015). Once again the heightened risk of widespread power cuts is highlighted in the National Press. We await the National Grid’s outlook for this Winter’s energy supply but its the year after that’s particularly concerning due to the...

The Investor’s Chronicle of 11th September featured a cover article entitled Keeping the Lights on – How to position your portfolio for the UK’s impending energy crunch. Within the article it looked at a number of energy companies that might be affected positively or adversely by the “narrowing ‘supply margin’@...

Unseasonably high temperatures in Poland have lead to power cuts and energy supply restrictions affecting industry giants such as ArcelorMittal and Grupa Azoty. Car makers Volkswagen, General Motors and Fiat risk being affected if the situation continues long term as it is currently coinciding with their Summer break. The high...

Heavy rain has caused “serious flooding” in parts of Scotland, with properties evacuated and hundreds of people in Perthshire without power. More than 750 properties in Alyth were affected by the power cut, and Scottish Hydro said efforts to restore services had been “severely hampered” by rising water levels. A bridge...

About 1,000 homes near Leeds were left without electricity on Saturday morning after severe thunderstorms in the early hours. Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for the distribution of electricity, said engineers were dealing with the situation in Wetherby. Powergrid manager Mick Hickling said the storm began at about 03:00 BST. He...

Up to 40,000 properties were left without power in the north-east of England due to violent storms. Northern Powergrid said affected customers in County Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland had supplies restored by late on Thursday night. Thankfully there were no reported injuries although some properties did receive lightning...

A massive power cut has hit dozens of provinces across Turkey including Istanbul and Ankara. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said all possible causes are being examined, including terrorism. Officials are saying a break in connections with mainland Europe could be to blame. Turkey suffers from sporadic electricity cuts but locals...

Have you ever wondered what the general effects of a long term power cut would be. The Government has recently undertaken an analysis of what would happen if the south-west of England found itself without any power for 2 weeks. The findings are interesting – some consequences are to be...

As widely reported in The Telegraph on 28th December, a secret Government security assessment has found that Britain is unprepared for prolonged blackouts, which would cause increased death rates, rising public disorder and high-risk criminals on the loose should major energy networks be seriously damaged. The assessment was codenamed Exercise Hopkinson...

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Fire broke out on Sunday at one of the cooling stations at Didcot B power station in Oxfordshire. At its peak, 25 fire engines and around 100 firefighters were tackling the blaze at the gas-fired station. The fire caused the 1.3GW power station to be partially shut down although Energy...

Two of Britain’s nuclear power plants, which were shut down in August over safety issues will not be fully up and running for another two years – triggering fears of potential blackouts this winter. The twin reactors at Heysham 1 and Hartlepool were shut down after cracks were discovered in...

Blackout alert: Offices and factories to undergo 1970s-style electricity rationing this winter to stop households being plunged into darkness Businesses will be offered compensation to shut down for four hours a day National Grid had planned to introduce this measure in winter of 2015 Fires and other setbacks put some of...

The danger of power shortages in the UK by the middle of the decade has risen, according to industry regulator Ofgem. Spare electricity power production capacity could fall to 2% by 2015, increasing the risk of blackouts. More investment in power generation and other action is needed to protect consumers,...

Four UK nuclear reactors that were shut down for safety reasons may not be back online until the end of the year, EDF Energy has said. The reactors at the Heysham 1 and Hartlepool power stations were shut in August following a routine inspection. EDF said there could be a...

National Grid is seeking additional electricity supplies for winter after unexpected plant shutdowns have raised fears of potential shortages. The firm, which runs Britain’s supply network, said it was accelerating an emergency plan asking providers how much more electricity they could provide to fill a possible shortfall. It said it was...

Thousands of dirty diesel generators are being secretly prepared all over Britain to provide emergency backup to prevent the National Grid collapsing when wind power fails. And under the hugely costly scheme, the National Grid is set to pay up to 12 times the normal wholesale market rate for the...

A large fire that broke out at Ferrybridge C power station near Castleford, West Yorkshire on Wednesday has put out of action two 490MW generating units for some months. At its height, 75 firefighters were on site tackling flames of up to 30m in height. Although the Power Station was...

Under European Union rules on pollution, almost half of the UK’s 13 coal-fired power stations are due to close by 2015 and all of them could be shut by 2023.  This is despite the fact that coal still supplies approximately 40% of Britain’s electricity generation needs. Without significant investment and...

According to BBC News, a power outage on Thursday 17th April 2014 affected almost a third of the country and more than 200,000 homes across the Highlands and Islands.  The Scottish Government has stated this was due to a “transient fault”. A helicopter was employed by Scottish and Southern Energy...

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, The US Energy Department’s inspector general has said that information relating to the vulnerability of their electrical grid should be ‘classified’ as it poses a ‘significant national security’ risk. Gunmen Attack Power Distribution Network This follows an attack by gunmen on an electrical...

The lights could go out in Portsmouth if the city’s demands for increased electricity are not resolved, its council leader has said. Gerald Vernon-Jackson has written to Energy Secretary Ed Davey over fears the city, already nearing capacity, will face power cuts in the future. The situation will be exacerbated...

About 5,000 properties were left without electricity as gale-force winds and persistent rain battered the south-west of England. Western Power Distribution said the majority of the homes were now reconnected. Several flood warnings and alerts have been issued by the Environment Agency. The Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said...

(Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Britons will remain without electricity on Christmas Day after torrential rainfall flooded homes and hurricane-force winds battered the country. Two severe flood alerts are in force along with nearly 300 secondary warnings, largely across southern and central England, Britain’s environment agency said on Wednesday....

999-style helpline to be set up for power cuts as review launched into Christmas storm response Plans for nationwide helpline to call in event of power cuts as ministers launch review into energy network companies’ response to blackouts caused by Christmas storms A 999-style emergency helpline for households to call...

MORE than 130,000 homes were left without electricity as the storm battered Scotland. Power lines were brought down by fallen trees as the ferocious winds caused havoc. And engineers battling to restore supplies continually found roads and bridges blocked by trees and other storm debris. The high winds also prevented...

Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes overnight as the highest tidal surge in 60 years moved along the east coast of England. The North Sea surge hit the north Norfolk coast early yesterday evening and headed south throughout the night. The fierce Atlantic storm – which claimed two...

Northern Powergrid engineers continue to work as hard as possible to restore power to customers hit by today’s storm. The company has activated its major incident response plan and all available staff have been deployed. As of 11.45am (Thursday), approximately 25,000 properties in the North East, Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire...

The power cut left scores of shops in darkness Thousands of homes and businesses in Middlesbrough were hit by a major power cut during stormy weather on Thursday. The town centre, including the bus station, was plunged into darkness after a sub station flooded. Earlier, High Tunstall College of Science...

One man was killed in West Lothian when his lorry was overturned by the winds, as James Cook reports A lorry driver has died after high winds caused travel chaos across Scotland, with trains halted and people being warned not to drive. Police Scotland said the man died at the...

Engineers reconnected 459,000 homes and businesses throughout the day, but 166,000 remained without electricity More than 600,000 homes and businesses were left without power on Monday after the storm brought down electricity lines across southern England. Three-quarters of those affected had been reconnected by the early evening, but engineers had...

In total 600,000 lost electricity because of hurricane-force gusts but ten per cent are waiting to be reconnected Majority of southern England had problems but Surrey, Sussex, Kent and Essex are the worst areas affected 17-year-old Bethany Freeman died after a tree fell onto the static home she was sleeping in...

Police had to tell people to stop calling 999 after a power cut led to 154 emergency calls in just half-an-hour. It happened after a large part of the city was plunged into darkness at about 2.15am yesterday. Leicestershire Police said it would normally expect to answer eight 999 calls...

The UK faces a higher risk of blackouts over the next five years as old power stations are decommissioned, the Government was warned today. Britain’s ageing national grid will be under most pressure next winter, causing potential disruption to electricity supplies, a report published by the Royal Academy of Engineering...

We may have got by without electricity 40 years ago but the greed of today’s privatised profiteers poses a real threat to the nation In January 1972, I sat in The Times building in Blackfriars, a candle flickering on my typewriter the only source of illumination. A national strike by...

Britain’s electricity safety buffer is at the lowest since 2007 and a cold winter could see an energy supply crunch. The risk of blackouts this winter will be higher than it has been for almost a decade, National Grid warned on Monday. The Grid said reserve supplies of electricity will...

The risk of blackouts this winter is higher than at any time over the past six years, National Grid has said. The operator of the UK’s electricity network said the difference between the power being generated and estimated peak demand could fall to levels not seen since the winter of...

Britain could suffer a big blackout similar to America’s as early as this winter, a Government energy adviser warned today. Professor Ian Fell was speaking after cuts left 50 million Americans in the dark. The same company that runs and owns Britain’s National Grid also owns the part of the...

Energy supplies have constructed a method of shutting down household appliances. This is alleged to save energy companies millions because they won’t have to start up the turbines or pay huge industrial companies to cut production. Many feel that consumers will not benefit at all and will be left paying...

£5 billion of sea cables to import electricity The Government plans to spend more than £5 billion laying 11 undersea power cables to allow Britain to import electricity from neighbouring countries and prevent blackouts in the next decade. The giant cables would provide up to 10GW of electricity, this would...

A damning indictment of the new ‘Green-friendly’ Energy Bill- Why IS Britain about to pay £110billion to enter a new dark age? The stupidest international agreement since the Treaty of Versailles expired at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Fifteen years after its launch, the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework...

The hurricane that hit Oklahoma was equivalent to a Category 5. This means winds were more than 200 miles per hour. Power outage problems continued across Oklahoma. State-wide nearly 95,000 electric customers are still without power. Officials say they are trying extremely hard to restore all power in these problem...

LONDON (Reuters) – British utility SSE Plc is to shut a quarter of its polluting and unprofitable power capacity over the coming year, warning that the government is seriously underestimating a looming electricity shortage. Adding to supply concerns after closures announced by other operators, SSE also warned that a lack...

Carbon-dioxide concentrations hit their highest level in 4m years. At noon on May 4th the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere around the Mount Loa Observatory in Hawaii hit 400 parts per million (ppm). The average for the day was 399.73 and researches at the observatory expect this figure, too,...

 400 hundred parts per million The only good news about the Earth’s record greenhouse-gas levels is that they have been well measured. Charles D. Keeling was a somewhat courtly man who changed the way people and governments see the world. He built an instrument is 1956 that could measure the...

    NEW YORK — Evoking harrowing memories of Hurricane Katrina, 300 patients were evacuated floor by floor from a premier hospital that lost generator power at the height of superstorm Sandy. Rescuers and staff at New York University Langone Medical Center began their mission Monday night of getting the...

World trade volumes will grow by 73% by 2025 predicts HSBC Trade Connections, a new quarterly global forecast released today. The report predicts that despite the current economic climate and a partner survey of international traders showing a downturn in confidence in the short term, trade will grow by 2%...

The coal-fired power station at Cockenzie in East Lothian has been closed. The station’s huge chimneys are a well-known local landmark, however the station does not meet modern environmental standards. ScottishPower wants to convert the plant to burn gas, rather than coal. There’s been no compulsory redundancies, with workers offered...

Belfast’s largest shopping complex, Victoria Square, was plunged into darkness for a time on Friday evening A network fault meant 200,000 homes in Belfast were without power for a time on Friday evening. Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) said the blackout was caused by an issue with the high voltage transmission...

Gosforth in Cumbria saw heavy snowfall on Friday Cumbria Police said it had received 800 calls for help including drivers involved in crashes or stranded because of fallen trees. About 450 homes in the Carleton, Workington and Seascale areas remain without power after lines came down. Electricity North West said...

Down the years and across the universe, the heroes of science fiction classics such as Dan Dare to Star Wars and The Matrix have fought intergalactic battles with weapons that wipe out enemy electronics at the touch of a button. Now scientists have turned fantasy into reality by developing a...

A blanket of snow has fallen across Shropshire and more is expected. Hundreds of homes were left without electricity in Shropshire after snow. Western Power Distribution (WPN) said 350 homes in the Telford area were without power, but this had been reduced to about 60, by 22:00 GMT. More than...

In a recent blog, Sir Bernard Ingham, former Press secretary to Margret Thatcher, posed an important question: do we want nuclear at any price? Sir Bernard is an avid supporter of new nuclear build, so the answer he invites – no – is all the more significant. Much of Britain’s...

Homes are being evacuated and thousands are without power as torrential rain caused flooding across the North East of England. Monsoon-like deluges hit the region and the Environment Agency warned many rivers could burst their banks. Police said flood-hit homes in Felling, Gateshead, and Lanchester, County Durham, were being evacuated....

Security: A code explodes – News Clipping from The Financial Times – October 1, 2010 – By James Blitz, Joseph Menn and Daniel Dombey   Sitting in his office in Hamburg, Ralph Langner, a German information technology specialist, recalls the moment when he came across the Stuxnet computer worm. “I have to...

Power Plants Stuck In Limbo – The Sunday Times news clipping – 15/08/2010...

The UK could face power shortages in the years ahead, according to the energy regulator, Ofgem. The regulator also warned that a significant number of consumers may not be able to afford the higher energy prices they would have to face. Ofgem said there was “reasonable doubt” about whether the...

How long till the lights go out? – News clipping from The Economist – August 8th...

VANDALS ATTACK AGAIN! Up to 100,000 properties on the London and Kent border suffered power failure following a fire on a cable bridge in Dartford early Monday afternoon. A vandal attack is being blamed for the fire which caused extensive damage, affecting four major electricity circuits and knocked out power...

21st July 2009 – 100,000 properties in dartford are left without power. Up to 100,000 properties on the London and Kent border suffered power failure following a fire on a cable bridge in Dartford early Monday afternoon. A vandal attack is being blamed for the fire which caused extensive damage,...

DARTFORD IN THE DARK! Up to 100,000 properties on the London and Kent border suffered power failure following a fire on a cable bridge in Dartford early Monday afternoon. A vandal attack is being blamed for the fire which caused extensive damage, affecting four major electricity circuits and knocked out...

Thousands of homes across the UK were left without power when the storms were at their peak, including some 100,000 people in Godalming, Surrey, and tens of thousands across the north east of England, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire. Ten killed as gales sweep Britain”. This news item reported that as...