How to make a compensation claim

If a power cut affecting your home or business lasted 12 hours or more (or 24 hours or more if it affected 5,000 or more properties at once), you may be owed money back under Ofgem's Guaranteed Standards scheme. outages.uk doesn't handle claims ourselves -- we only flag when an incident looks like it ran long enough to qualify -- but here's how to actually claim.

1. Check whether you've already been paid automatically

Most network operators now pay Guaranteed Standards compensation automatically, without you needing to ask, usually within a few weeks of power being restored -- by bank transfer, cheque, or as a credit to your electricity account. Check your bank statement or account balance before assuming you need to claim.

2. If you haven't been paid, contact your network operator

Not your electricity supplier (who sends your bill) -- the network operator, who owns the wires and poles in your area and is responsible for the compensation itself. See our operator directory for every operator's claims line and website. Have ready: your postcode, roughly when the power went off and came back on, and the incident reference if the operator's own outage page showed one (ours shows it too, on the card that flagged this incident).

3. Ask for a reason if a claim is refused

An operator can refuse a claim for a specific, published set of reasons -- for example, if the cut was caused by severe weather (which has its own, different thresholds) or something outside their control, like damage caused by a third party. They should tell you which exception applies, not just decline.

4. Escalate if you still think you're owed money

If you've contacted the operator and either had no response within 10 working days or disagree with their decision, you can take it to the Energy Ombudsman (for domestic and microbusiness customers) or Citizens Advice for free guidance on your options. Both are independent of the network operators.

This is general information, not advice on your specific situation -- see our FAQ for the full set of Guaranteed Standards thresholds and figures, and Ofgem's own guidance for the definitive rules.