Taking power from the people and putting water down the drain

Tradescant Road is falling to bits.

On the subject of power cuts, David writes:

Just to let everyone know that parts of Tradescant Road had no power for 7 or 8 hours last night. This has been happening on and off and various parts of the street for the last 3 weeks or so in shorter bursts.

I rang EDF energy last night and this morning which is the supply company in this area (no matter who you buy your power from). If you need to report a power outage the number is 0800 028 0247 (if it is not just you but your neighbours as well).

Bizarrely some houses seemed to have power but the majority on Tradescant, Walberswick, South Lambeth Road and Meadow Place did not.

Apparently we have had 3 fuses blow at the substation recently - 2 faults three times and 1 emergency isolation (I think this is what they said or words to that effect). They have done some sort of sweep.

[note from mm: EdF is subject to certain standards of performance, the most relevant of which being "If four or more interruptions each lasting 3 or more hours occur in any single year (1 April – 31 March) , a £50 payment must be made".  So keep tracking in those power cuts - the prospect of paying a fine may move EdF to improve service.]

They say we have been really "unlucky". What is causing all of this is an intermittent fault in a cable which will require an "excavation" (this happens apparently because of the extreme weather and water getting into their cables, through pavements).

There has been a lot of this in London and a big backlog of work for EDF. They intend to do it for us eventually but have not currently booked it in because of this backlog. So who knows when it might get done. Currently our power is diverted from somewhere else, but it is likely that this intermittent fault is going to happen again. So it's candles, writing mittens and a copy of Jayne Eyre for entertainment.

Keep Calm and Carry on.


And talking of water getting into their cables through pavements, Andrew writes:

There is a burst water main outside number 17. I reported it to Thames Water this morning who said someone would be round within 15 days. I laughed.

The main asked if the leak would fill a bucket within a minute and I said "yes" and he sadi someone would be round within 8 hours.

They have been round and put some blue marks on the road and pavement so presumably at some point they will be digging it up and repairing the water main. I imagine this takes ages to organise. We shall see...