Power cuts and electrical medical equipment

Date: Monday 25th June 2007

Subject: Power cuts and electrical medical equipment

Northpower is experiencing an increasing number of calls during faults regarding customers who have electrical medical equipment. While some have been genuine, others have proven to be false or hoax calls, and have caused Northpower concern.

Northpower’s Network Services Manager, Calvin Whaley says that if customers do have home based electrical medical devices, they need to ensure they have contingency plans in place.

“The best advice we can give to customers is to prepare a plan of what they need to do if a power cut occurs. Plans will differ from customer to customer, with some needing to simply wait it out and some needing assistance if their health or welfare is at risk,” Mr. Whaley says.

“In the event of a power cut or fault, the first point of contact for customers who become concerned about their safety should be the emergency services (111). Customers need to be aware that most cordless phones will not work during a power cut,” he says.

Mr. Whaley says it is not possible to guarantee an uninterrupted supply to customers, all of the time.

“For reasons beyond our control, the power can go out, at any time, often for minutes and at times for hours. This is despite Northpower’s network performing in the top half of comparable networks in the country,’ he says.

Disturbances or faults that are beyond Northpower’s control such as storms, cars hitting poles and tree and animal disruptions, have contributed significantly to the increase in unplanned outages in the last 12 months.

“Customers are reminded that these are circumstances we cannot control nor predict and that staff work hard to restore power in the event of a failure. Northpower strongly recommends that customers put their own measures in place to ensure their own safety, health and well-being during a power outage,” Mr Whaley says.

ENDS

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