Power cuts

What it is

A power cut is a loss of electricity supply to your home. Be Ready, the government's preparedness website, says the causes include severe weather that damages infrastructure, and system faults. The UK has a resilient electricity system, and most cuts are short and local. Wider and longer outages do happen, and could last several days across a region. A national outage is described as unlikely.

In the unlikely event of a national energy shortage, emergency cuts could be scheduled area by area. Each area in Great Britain has a load block letter and would be disconnected for around three hours at a time. You can find your letter by postcode at powercut105.com, and some suppliers print it on bills.

What it does to a home

Gas ovens, boilers, heat pumps and home internet do not work without power. Your mobile may stop working if the local mast is in the affected area. Mains water can be disrupted during and after a cut. Personal alarms, telecare and connected health equipment such as diabetes sensors may stop. Be Ready tells you to ask the device provider now how they behave without power.

A corded landline may still work. If yours would not, your provider may offer a free back-up battery unit giving at least an hour of calls to the emergency services. If you have a life-threatening emergency and no working landline, try 999 on a mobile. Emergency calls roam onto any available network, so a signal from a neighbouring unaffected area may carry the call.

Older adults, babies and young children, and people with long-term health problems are most likely to become ill if they get too cold. Heating the rooms you use, closing doors and drawing curtains keeps warmth in.

Who warns you

Nobody warns you of a fault. For planned work, the Priority Services Register gives advance notice wherever possible, and your network operator can tell you about planned cuts if you rely on electricity for medical reasons. The PSR is free in England, Scotland and Wales and can be joined at thepsr.co.uk or through your supplier. You register once with the electricity network and the details are shared with gas and water companies. Northern Ireland has Customer Care Registers instead, and its own number for reporting cuts, which the Be Ready page lists.

If you use medical equipment that needs power, make a plan now with your care provider or clinical team covering what you do and who you contact.

How the government assesses it

The National Risk Register 2025 plans against a regional failure of the electricity network, which it says could affect millions and would most likely follow extreme weather, with greater impacts in winter. It cites storms Arwen and Eunice in winter 2021 to 2022, when thousands of homes lost power, and says industry has since improved physical resilience and consumer support. Most customers would be reconnected in stages within hours, but widespread damage or remote locations could take several weeks to restore fully. The scenario expects telecommunications and transport to be disrupted too.

Where to look

• Report and track a cut at powercut105.com or on 105.
• Priority Services Register at thepsr.co.uk.
• Food Standards Agency advice on food safety in a power cut, linked from the Be Ready page.
• Related pages: water supply interruptions, phone and broadband outages, storms, cold weather, snow and ice.