Power cut questions, answered
Is National Grid responsible for my power cut?
Almost certainly not directly. National Grid Electricity Transmission runs the high-voltage backbone that carries electricity across Great Britain — it doesn't connect to homes. The company that actually runs the network to your property is your local distribution network operator (DNO), and it depends on where you live: for example, National Grid Electricity Distribution (a separate company, formerly Western Power Distribution) covers the Midlands and South West, while UK Power Networks covers London, the East, and the South East. See our Operators & contact numbers page to find yours.
What's the difference between a DNO and National Grid?
National Grid Electricity Transmission moves electricity in bulk, at very high voltage, between power stations and regions — it's the company that runs the big pylons you see marching across the countryside. A distribution network operator (DNO) takes that electricity and delivers it at lower voltage to homes and businesses in a specific region — the poles, cables, and substations that actually reach your street. There are 14 licence areas across Great Britain, run by six different DNO groups (plus NIE Networks in Northern Ireland), and outages.uk aggregates live data from all of them. See our Operators & contact numbers page for the full list.
Who do I call to report a power cut?
In Great Britain, call 105 — it's free, available 24/7, and automatically routes to your local network operator, so you don't need to know which DNO covers your area first. 105 doesn't cover Northern Ireland: call NIE Networks directly on 03457 643 643 instead. See our Operators & contact numbers page for every operator's own number too.
Am I owed compensation for my power cut?
Possibly — network operators are required to pay under Ofgem's Guaranteed Standards scheme if they don't restore power within set time limits. In normal weather: if the cut affects fewer than 5,000 properties and lasts 12 hours or more, you can claim £95 (domestic) or £190 (non-domestic), plus £45 for each further 12 hours, up to £360 total. If it affects 5,000 or more properties, the threshold is 24 hours instead, with the same £95/£190 plus £45 per further 12 hours, up to £390 total. Cut off more than four times in a year (1 April to 31 March), for at least three hours each time? You can claim an extra £95. Severe weather has its own, different thresholds set by Ofgem. outages.uk doesn't handle claims — contact your network operator directly (see our Operators & contact numbers page), or Ofgem and Citizens Advice for more detail and help if a claim is refused.
How do I actually make a compensation claim?
Four steps: first, check whether you've already been paid — most operators now pay Guaranteed Standards compensation automatically, without a claim, usually within a few weeks of power being restored. If not, contact your network operator directly, not your electricity supplier — have your postcode, roughly when the power went off and came back, and the incident reference ready (our operator pages flag incidents that look old enough to qualify, with that reference on the card). If they refuse, ask which specific exception applies — severe weather and third-party damage are common ones, and they should tell you, not just decline. And if you still think you're owed money after that, the Energy Ombudsman or Citizens Advice can help, independent of the operator. See our full walkthrough for more detail on each step.
How often is this data updated?
Every 10 minutes at most, sometimes faster: we poll each operator's own licensed open-data feed every 10 minutes, and most operators also publish a faster live feed on their own power cut checker website, which we check too, so a new power cut usually appears well before 10 minutes are up.
Why does your map show something different from my network operator's own website?
Usually just timing — see the previous question. We only ever show an operator's own published status, never a guess, so a short lag between their site updating and ours catching up is the most common cause. Less often, an operator publishes two different feeds with slightly different details for the same incident (a licensed dataset for the official record, and a separate live feed for their own website) — where the two genuinely disagree, which one we show can depend on which was updated most recently. If something looks wrong for more than a few minutes, your operator's own site or 105 is the authoritative source, not us.
What does "restored" mean, and why does an incident stay on the map afterwards?
"Restored" means the network operator has reported that power is back on for everyone the incident affected — it's their claim, reported to us the same way the rest of an incident's data is, not something we verify independently. A restored incident stays visible on the map for an hour afterwards (shown with a green pin) so you can confirm a cut you were just affected by has genuinely cleared, rather than vanishing the instant it closes. Older restored incidents aren't shown on the live map at all, but remain in a site or area's full history — see our API for premium access to that.
How reliable is an estimated restoration time?
It's the operator's own working estimate, not a guarantee — engineers often discover a fault is more (or less) serious than first thought once they're on site, and an estimate can move as a result. We label every one "operator's own, not guaranteed" for exactly this reason, and show it exactly as published rather than rounding or inferring one of our own when an operator hasn't given one.
What's the difference between a fault and planned work?
A fault is unplanned — something has gone wrong on the network, and power is off until it's fixed. Planned work is a scheduled interruption an operator has announced in advance, usually to carry out maintenance safely. We show the two differently wherever we can — planned work in amber on the homepage map, separately labelled on area pages — because they mean different things for you: a fault has no fixed end time until engineers assess it, while planned work usually has a published start and finish. Either way, if your power is unexpectedly off right now, call 105 to confirm it's already known about.
I can't find any incidents for my postcode — does that mean nothing's wrong?
Almost always, yes — no incident currently matches your postcode in any operator's published data. Very occasionally an operator's feed doesn't carry a postcode for an incident at all (most common for an older or licensed-only record), so it exists in our data but can't be matched to a search. If your power is actually off and we show nothing, the fastest way to confirm it's known about is 105, free and 24/7.
Is outages.uk affiliated with my network operator?
outages.uk is not affiliated with any Distribution Network Operator (DNO), the Energy Networks Association, or the 105 service. We aggregate each operator's own published power cut data — their licensed open dataset, and usually their own website's live feed too — into one place, and attribute every incident to the operator that reported it. We're an information service built on top of their public data, not a substitute for contacting them directly when it matters.
Does a power cut affect my gas supply too?
Not directly — gas and electricity are separate networks, and a power cut doesn't turn off your gas. In practice, though, most modern gas appliances (boilers, gas fires, hobs with electric ignition) need mains electricity to ignite or run their controls, so you can lose heating and hot water during a power cut even though gas is still flowing. If you smell gas at any point, that's a gas emergency, not a power cut — call the National Gas Emergency number on 0800 111 999 immediately, free, 24/7.
Do you cover Scotland and Northern Ireland?
Yes, fully, on the live map, postcode search and API — all 14 GB distribution licence areas (including both of Scotland's, SP Distribution and Scottish Hydro) plus NIE Networks in Northern Ireland.
Can I get an alert the moment my site loses power?
Yes — that's what our premium console is for: register your sites, and get a webhook or email the moment a power cut starts affecting one of them, not when someone happens to notice. It also tracks your full incident history and flags when you may be owed Ofgem compensation. See outages.uk for Businesses for details and a free 30-day trial.