What to do in a power cut

Updated 4 August 2026

Step one: look outside

If your neighbours are dark too, or the street lights are out, it is a network fault. Call 105 free from any landline or mobile in England, Scotland and Wales. It routes you straight to the distribution network operator for your area, who own the cables in the street. It is free, and they will tell you the estimated restoration time.

Step two: check your own board

If yours is the only property affected, take a torch to the consumer unit and look for:

• The main switch in the off position
• An RCD or RCBO that has tripped down
• A circuit breaker that has dropped
• Any smell of burning, or heat coming from the enclosure

If a device has tripped, switch off the circuit breakers below it, reset the RCD, then bring the circuits back one at a time to find the one at fault. If nothing has tripped and there is no supply at all, the problem is likely to be at the cut-out or the meter, which belongs to your supplier and not to us.

While the power is off

• Keep freezers and fridges closed. A full freezer holds temperature for around 24 hours unopened.
• Switch off cookers, hobs, irons and heaters at the wall, so they do not all restart together when supply returns.
• Leave one light switched on so you know the moment power comes back.
• Use torches rather than candles, especially with children or pets in the house.
• If anyone in the house relies on electrical medical equipment, register with your network operator for the Priority Services Register before you need it.

When to call us instead

Call an electrician when the supply is present but your installation will not stay on, when a device trips repeatedly, when there is any smell of burning, or when part of the property has power and part does not. Those are all faults inside your boundary, and they are exactly what our emergency line is for.