Power restored at 9pm last night after day without electricity for parts of Ely - caused by workmen going through main cable
Electricity has been off in Broad Street Ely since 10am today - Credit: Archant
Power was finally restored to shops and businesses in Broad Street/Forehill Ely 12 hours after workmen accidentally cut through a power cable yesterday morning.
Broad Street, Ely, left with no electricty, - Credit: Archant
Businessman Dennis Hill, who is based along with the Ely Standard in Alexander House, complained at the lack of updates after the power went off at 10am and said fellow workers called it a day at lunchtime because they were without heating and lighting for so long.
Mr Hill said: “The lights started flickering at around 10am as the Balfour Beatty workmen working on the new street lights were completing the first stretch of new cabling. Then all of a sudden the lights went out completely.”
Mr Hill was unhappy at the lack of communication and said it was frustrating for businesses.
He was not the only customer left unhappy. David Pipes from Atlanta in America emailed the Standard to complain about the situation.
Broad Street, Ely, left with no electricty, - Credit: Archant
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He said: “This morning Balfour Beatty cut off power in Broad Street without any notice to residents. This afternoon they have finished for the day leaving homes without any power. My elderly sister who lives in Broad Street is left with no heating and only candles for lighting. This is completely unacceptable.”
Initially a message from UK Power Networks’ live updates service said they hoped to have power supplies returned by 4pm, but that was delayed to 8.30pm after engineers finally found the fault at 7.30pm.
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However, power was finally re-connected at 9.38pm.
A spokesman for UK Power Networks said: “Engineers worked to restore power supplies to customers in the Broad Street area of Ely after a third party damaged one of our underground electricity cables. The incident initially resulted in 54 customers losing power at 10.26am although we needed to isolate supplies to a further 26 customers at 12.19pm in order to make the equipment safe and carry out repairs.”
Those affected by power cuts can text power followed by the postcode to 80876 for an update of what’s happening in their area.
