|
|
 |
| |
Electricity outage sparks anger as businesses suffer blackouts
EDF Energy – the electricity suppliers to West Hampstead – have been urged to invest more money into its network after residents complained of months of costly power costs.
The company is under fire after leaving 1,500 properties in the area without power for three days last week.
Residents said it was the fifth time they have been left without power this year.
They have been warned that they will only receive compensation for occasions when power is cut continuously for 18 hours. Last week the power went on and off intermittently so no money is expected to be paid out by company.
Regardless of the extent of losses, the maximum compensation for businesses is £100, and £50 for residents.
Andrew Balcombe, who lives in Pandora Road, said he has made numerous complaints to EDF over the failures.
He said: “When power is restored the lights have been significantly dimmer so we’ve had to complain about low wattage. The response has been a complete failure. There have been no assurances this will not happen again.”
In response to queries from the New Journal, EDF said the problem was “complex”.
Businesses who lost thousands of pounds during the latest blackout were forced to claim on their private insurance.
One resident, Dugagjin Syla, was forced to spend almost £1,000 on a new fridge, television and video recorder after they were destroyed by a suspected surge in electricity when power was restored.
He said: “I don’t need that expense every time the power goes off – it’s not cheap and it’s time-consuming. Now we have to worry about making sure everything is turned off if we lose power again, but what if we are away.”
A spokeswoman for EDF said the company had already invested £400million in its networks this year as part of a wider £2billion investment programme between 2005 and 2010.
She added: “The reliability and security of power supplies across London is very high. EDF Energy Networks is constantly working to improve the performance of its network and to meet future needs for power.” |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
