⚡Power Cuts — Preparing, Coping and Getting Help
Most power cuts are relatively short, but a prolonged outage can affect heating, lighting, communications, cooking and essential medical equipment.
For someone who is older, frail, has a disability or relies on electricity for medical reasons, the consequences can become much more serious.
Wraysbury & Horton Resilience (WHR) encourages everyone to make some simple preparations before the electricity goes off.
QUICK LINKS — What do you need now?
⚡ Power has gone off
— what should I do?
How to report the outage, find out what is happening and how take practical steps to stay safe in your home.
🚑 Someone depends on electricity
— what should I do?
What to do if someone is vulnerable or relies on electrically powered medical equipment.
🏠 How can I prepare for a power cut?
Prepare lighting, communications, essential supplies and your household before an outage.
💡 The power is back
— what should I check?
Safely restart appliances and check your home after an outage.
The Power Has Gone Off — What Should I Do?
First — call 105 or check online
POWER CUT? CALL 105
105 is the free national number for electricity power cuts.
You can use it regardless of which company you buy your electricity from. It connects you with the electricity network operator responsible for the wires supplying your property.
In Wraysbury and Horton, the electricity network operator is UK Power Networks.
Check, report or track a power cut with UK Power Networks
UK Power Networks can also provide updates about an ongoing power cut.
If there is an immediate danger to life, call 999.
Stay well away from fallen or damaged electricity cables.
1. Check Whether It Is a Power Cut
If your neighbours also have no electricity, there is probably a network outage.
If other properties have power:
- check whether your fuse box or consumer unit has tripped
- consider whether a faulty appliance may have caused it
- check UK Power Networks for a known outage.
Don’t assume there cannot be a network fault simply because a neighbour still has electricity. Nearby properties can sometimes be supplied by different cables.
2. Use Torches Rather Than Candles
Keep torches somewhere easy to find.
Battery or rechargeable lamps are much safer than candles, particularly where there are:
- children
- pets
- older or vulnerable people
- mobility problems.
If you do use candles, never leave them unattended.
3. Keep Your Phone Working
Mobile phones may become particularly important during an outage.
- Switch on Low Power Mode.
- Reduce screen brightness.
- Avoid unnecessary streaming or other heavy use.
- Use a charged power bank if necessary.
- Keep at least one power bank charged routinely.
Remember that internet-based home telephones may stop working when your router loses power.
Keep 105 and important family/contact numbers somewhere accessible rather than relying entirely on internet access.
4. Keep Fridge and Freezer Doors Closed
Avoid repeatedly opening refrigerators and freezers.
Keeping the doors closed helps food remain cold for longer.
If the outage lasts for several hours, check current food-safety advice before eating refrigerated or frozen food that may have become too warm.
If in doubt about whether food is safe, don’t risk it.
5. Think About Temperature
A power cut can become a health issue during extreme weather.
During cold weather
Loss of electricity may affect central heating even where the boiler itself uses gas.
Keep doors and curtains closed, wear additional layers and use blankets.
If the home is becoming too cold, particularly for an older or vulnerable person, follow our:
Extreme Winter Weather — Preparing for Cold Weather guidance
During hot weather
Loss of fans, refrigeration or electrically powered cooling can make an already hot home considerably harder to manage.
Follow our:
Extreme Summer Weather — Preparing for Hot Weather guidance
If remaining in the property is becoming unsafe, consider moving to somewhere with a safe temperature rather than waiting for conditions to become dangerous.
6. Never Use Outdoor Cooking or Heating Equipment Indoors
Never bring:
- barbecues
- camping stoves
- patio heaters
- generators
inside your home, garage, conservatory or another enclosed space.
They can produce carbon monoxide, which can kill.
👩🦼Someone Depends on Electricity — What Should I Do?
For some households, a power cut is more than an inconvenience.
Someone may depend upon electricity for:
- medical equipment
- mobility equipment
- refrigeration of essential medicines
- communication equipment
- lifts or stairlifts
- other essential support.
If essential medical equipment is affected
Follow the emergency plan provided by your healthcare team or equipment supplier.
Know:
- whether the equipment has a battery backup
- how long that battery will operate
- what you should do when the battery becomes low
- who provides emergency technical support
- whether alternative equipment or another location is available.
Ofgem specifically advises households dependent on medical equipment to check whether it has a backup battery and how long that battery will last.
Do not wait until the battery is nearly exhausted before seeking help.
If somebody’s health is deteriorating or there is an immediate threat to life:
CALL 999.
Priority Services Registers — Register Before You Need Help
There is no single registration that covers every utility and every emergency.
If you or somebody in your household may need additional support, register before an incident occurs.
Priority Services Registers are free.
Electricity — UK Power Networks
UK Power Networks operates the electricity distribution network in our area and maintains a Priority Services Register for people who may need additional support during a power cut.
You may benefit if circumstances such as health, disability, age, communication needs or dependence on electricity make an interruption particularly difficult.
Join the UK Power Networks Priority Services Register
Priority Services telephone: 0800 169 9970 — available 24 hours.
Gas and Energy Suppliers
Your energy supplier also maintains Priority Services information.
Ofgem recommends contacting your supplier or network operator directly. If you have different gas and electricity suppliers, you may need to contact them separately; if you change supplier, check your PSR registration with the new supplier.
Ofgem — Joining a Priority Services Register
Water — Affinity Water
Affinity Water has a separate free Priority Services Register for customers who may need extra support because of communication, accessibility, medical, physical or mental-health needs.
Join Affinity Water’s Priority Services Register
For an urgent water-supply problem:
Affinity Water: 0345 357 2407 — 24 hours a day.
Also Register with WHR
The WHR Vulnerable Residents Register is separate from utility Priority Services Registers.
They serve different purposes.
Your utility companies use their registers to identify customers who may need additional support relating to their services.
WHR’s register helps us identify local residents who may need additional community support during significant incidents such as:
- power cuts
- flooding
- extreme cold
- extreme heat
- other local emergencies.
Registering with WHR does not automatically register you with your utility companies — and registering with a utility does not register you with WHR.
If appropriate, we encourage residents to do both.
WHR — Vulnerable Residents Register
✅How Can I Prepare for a Power Cut?
The best time to prepare is while the electricity is working.
A small amount of preparation can make a short outage easy to manage and a prolonged outage considerably safer.
1. Prepare Some Basic Equipment
Keep somewhere accessible:
- LED torches
- spare batteries
- charged power banks
- phone charging cables
- warm clothing and blankets
- basic food that does not require cooking
- drinking water
- essential medicines
- battery radio if you have one.
You don’t need a cupboard full of emergency equipment.
The aim is simply to be able to manage safely if normal services are disrupted.
2. Keep Power Banks Charged
A power bank is only useful if it has power in it.
Get into the habit of:
- keeping one or more charged
- checking them periodically
- keeping the appropriate cables with them.
If several people live in the household, think about how many phones you may need to keep working.
3. Think About Your Home Beforehand
Ask yourself:
Can I find a torch in complete darkness?
Can I open electrically operated doors or gates manually?
What happens to my garage door?
Will my landline telephone work without mains electricity?
Can I safely get downstairs if the stairlift stops?
Does anyone rely on electrically powered medical equipment?
How will we keep warm during winter?
How will we keep cool during extreme heat?
Finding these things out now is considerably easier than discovering them during an outage.
4. Know How Electrically Operated Equipment Works
If you have:
- electric gates
- garage doors
- electric locks
- stairlifts
- powered recliner chairs
- mobility equipment
find out what happens if the electricity fails.
Know where manual releases are and make sure anyone who may need them understands how they work.
Do not assume a battery backup will operate indefinitely.
5. Keep Essential Medicines Available
Maintain a reasonable supply of regular medicines and know whether any require refrigeration.
If a medicine requires refrigeration, ask your pharmacist or healthcare provider what you should do during a prolonged power cut.
Do not discard or stop using a medicine solely because there has been a power cut without checking appropriate advice.
6. Plan for People Who May Need Extra Help
Think about relatives, friends and neighbours who:
- live alone
- are elderly or frail
- have reduced mobility
- have sight or hearing difficulties
- rely on medical equipment
- may be unable to use online outage information
- may become particularly vulnerable during extreme heat or cold.
A short outage may be an inconvenience to you but a significant problem for somebody else.
Check on vulnerable neighbours during a prolonged power cut if it is safe to do so.
7. Join the Appropriate Registers Now
Don’t wait for an emergency.
If eligible, consider registering separately with:
✓ UK Power Networks Priority Services Register
✓ Your energy supplier’s Priority Services Register
✓ Affinity Water Priority Services Register
✓ WHR Vulnerable Residents Register
There is no single registration you should assume covers all four.
💡The Power Is Back — What Should I Check?
When electricity is restored, don’t immediately switch everything on at once.
1. Check Essential Equipment
Check:
- heating
- medical equipment
- fridge and freezer
- broadband/router
- clocks and timers
- security systems
- alarms
- electrically operated doors or gates.
Make sure essential equipment has restarted correctly rather than assuming it has.
2. Check Food
If the power was off for a prolonged period, check refrigerated and frozen food before using it.
Do not rely solely on appearance or smell to determine whether potentially hazardous food is safe.
3. Recharge Everything
As soon as practical, recharge:
- phones
- power banks
- rechargeable torches
- medical-equipment backup batteries
- other emergency equipment.
That means you are ready if the supply fails again.
4. Reset What Needs Resetting
You may need to reset:
- heating controls
- clocks
- appliance timers
- alarms
- internet equipment
- smart-home devices.
Check that heating or cooling has actually restarted, particularly in the home of a vulnerable person.
5. Review What You Learned
After a significant power cut, ask:
What did we wish we’d had?
Which equipment caused problems?
Did our phones remain usable?
Were our power banks charged?
Did we know how to operate gates, doors or stairlifts?
Did vulnerable family members or neighbours have what they needed?
Then improve your household plan for next time.
📚Useful Power-Cut Resources
Report or Check a Power Cut
Call 105 — free
UK Power Networks — Search, track and report power cuts
Priority Services — Electricity
UK Power Networks Priority Services Register
Priority Services — Water
Affinity Water Priority Services Register
Independent Energy Guidance
Ofgem — Plan for a power cut
WHR Guidance
Wraysbury & Horton Resilience — We’re Here to Help You Prepare
Please don’t wait for a power cut to start preparing.
WHR can help residents with:
- preparing for power cuts
- understanding Priority Services Registers
- identifying the appropriate utility registrations
- preparing vulnerable household members
- accessing our Vulnerable Residents Register
- finding appropriate support services.
WHR: 07808 654321
During a widespread or prolonged power cut, our resources will inevitably be limited and priority must be given to residents who are most vulnerable.
WHR – Here to help you prepare before the lights go out.
A household with torches, charged phones and power banks, essential medicines, appropriate PSR registrations and a plan for vulnerable household members is much better equipped to cope with a power cut.
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