Energy company apologises to customers still without power after storm – 500 still affected

SP Energy have said they are “working tirelessly in very challenging conditions to reconnect power as quickly and as safely as possible”.

Over the weekend, Storm Arwen hit the area and as a result the energy infrastructure company locally said “some of the worst damage we have experienced in over 15 years” had occurred.

In England and Wales there are just under 500 customers are still currently affected – mainly in Dee Valley, Oswestry, Mid Wales and North Wales.

In a short statement SP Energy said, “Our engineers have been working tirelessly for several days and nights fixing the damage caused by Storm Arwen, with more than 166,000 customers now reconnected.

“We would like to apologise to our customers still without power – we are doing everything we can.”

“Our Customer Liaison Officers are supporting the most vulnerable customers in our communities. We are prioritising anyone who is medically dependent on electricity, offering hot food & drinks to customers, and sorting hotels for those who need it.”

“If you or someone in your home is vulnerable, please make sure you call us on 105 so that we can discuss any further support we can give you from organising hot food, drinks and other welfare services to accomodation if required.”

The communication has been criticised, as we have been sharing, including one person regularly documenting the outage affecting them:

87 hours without power in Pentrebychan Lane LL14. Four nights and still no call back from @SP_EnergyPeople #nopowersinceFriday @wrexham @BBC_HaveYourSay

— blah blah blah (@morerabbitthan) November 30, 2021

SP Energy said, “We have taken 118,957 calls (over 2 months worth of calls in 3 days), but our colleagues across our call centres are working around the clock to answer them. However, we appreciate customers who have asked for a call back will be taking longer and we are prioritising them based on those most vulnerable. Our social media teams are also working extremely hard to reply to all of the messages and comments across our social media channels.”

“Over the last few days, we’ve received an unprecedented volume of contacts from customers by both phone and social media. We’ve sent over 200,000 messages to customers to update them with our progress, but please continue to check our website for updates where you can in the first instance.”