[25
JUL 00 EAST MIDLANDS ELECTRICITY NEWS
Lights Go Out All Over Earlsdon
Thousands
of homes and business in Earlsdon in Coventry were plunged into
darkness following a power cut last night.
Engineers
worked until 3am to try and restore after the fault rendered cookers
and televisions useless at 5.30pm.
And
shops, takeaways and pubs in the normally busy Earlsdon Street were
forced to close.
Isobel
Hoseason of East Midlands Electricity, the firm responsible for all
the cables in the area, said the fault was traced to an underground
cable.
She
said extra engineers were brought to try and locate the source of the
problem, but the power was not restored until 3am.
Generators
were brought in from Nuneaton in case the repairs took a long time to
make.
She
said:
“Our
priority is to restore power as quickly as possible and then we work
on the repair job.
“We’ve
done a temporary repair that put customers back on at 3am. Today we
hope to find hat caused the fault to the underground cable.”
But
the 2,500 shops and homeowners affected will not be compensated for
the loss of power, even if it forced a business to shut or freezer
goods to defrost.
Under
rules set by the industry regulator Ofgen, £50 compensation is only
paid if the power is cut for 24 hours.
Ward
councillor Ken Taylor called for the regulations to be changed.
He
said:
"If
the power has been off for nine hours then people's food in a
freezer is going to defrost, whether it is a home or a business, and
somebody should be responsible for picking up the bill.
"It
shouldn't just be left to people getting it off the home
insurance."
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