Residents of a new housing estate plus several businesses have reported being affected by three outages in three months, reports Clara Aberneithie

The Locksley Place development (credit Google)

Local businesses and residents around The Ridgeway in Enfield have expressed frustration over a series of power cuts – with some saying they’ve been happening regularly since 2019.

UK Power Networks (UKPN), which maintains the electricity grid in London and the south-east, has apologised for the most recent disruption last week, blaming it on engineering work. But locals say the outages are happening almost every other month.

A new housing estate near Chase Farm Hospital appears to be the most badly affected. Power cuts tend to last anywhere between 30 to 60 minutes and have occurred six times over the past 15 months, including three times in the past three months.

One local resident, Dianne Berk, moved to the Locksley Place development in December 2019 and has experienced regular power cuts ever since. She told the Dispatch: “I remember during the [Covid-19] lockdowns, I had a big presentation to deliver and just before I was about to present, the power cut off, so had to tether from my mobile, which wasn’t easy.

“It’s just surprising that nothing has been done about the power cuts, that it’s a normal way of life – it shouldn’t be.

“Why is it our area? What is wrong with the infrastructure? I have never experienced this anywhere else […] it is too frequent to be normal.”

The power cuts have also brought damages. Those triggered by surges of electricity have broken security cameras and prompted smoke alarms to be reset.

Residents also complain about having to restart washing machines and dishwashers after a power cut, which has pushed their bills up during the cost-of-living crisis.

Businesses have been affected, with locals noting the Shell petrol station, Ridgeway Tavern pub, and The Cavell Hospital have all been regularly affected.

A UKPN spokesperson said: “We understand how difficult it is to be without power and would like to apologise for recent power problems affecting customers in Enfield.

“Customers experienced brief outages whilst engineers rerouted supplies on the network.”

GTC UK is the utility provider for the new housing estate near Chase Farm Hospital. Asked about the regular power cuts, a spokesperson said they had been caused, on different occasions, by “high voltage faults”, a “fault on a pole-mounted transformer”, an “overhead line damaged by third party”, and an “extra high voltage cable fault”.

They added: “Whilst each of these outages are unrelated, they highlight the challenges associated with operating overhead power lines which are more vulnerable to environmental factors like strong winds, trees, and third-party interference.

“Although there is no single maintenance action that can prevent this type of disruption, we remain committed to minimising the impact on our customers wherever possible and work closely with UKPN to monitor the situation and support any necessary improvements.”

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