11 March 2024 , 09:52
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The National Grid could cut its out of hours repair callouts for certain groups of customers.
The National Grid is responsible for power connections to homes, and currently, it will send out a repairman within three hours if notified between 7am and 7pm on weekdays. On weekends, they must be notified between 9am and 5pm. If they don't turn up, then they are fined £35 per customer. This fine, which is paid to the customer, increases to £90 if the home is without power for more than 12 hours.
The Sun reports that a source from the National Grid told the newspaper it may be cheaper to pay the fines rather than pay after-hours staff wages. However, a spokesperson from National Grid denied this when approached by The Mirror today.
The spokesman confirmed that plans were being put forward but "no decision had been made". They added that the National Grid "might" be "delaying" services if they are notified of a loss of power overnight, there is only one customer affected, and if no Priority Service Register customers are affected. The group say that work on the repair would commence first thing the following morning.
These decisions would be made on a case by case basis. The group noted that if it did make any changes it would be done "on a trial basis". The spokesman said the group was "committed to providing excellent customer service" and noted that "disruption to our service is unacceptable".
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They continued: "We have made a public pledge to minimise any disruption caused by unscheduled power supply interruptions – and take this commitment very seriously. Especially for more vulnerable customers on our Priority Services Register.
“Carrying out overnight roadworks to restore power supplies can be noisy and disruptive, so we are considering whether in a small number of circumstances, it would be better overall customer service to delay these repair works until first thing the following morning. No decision has been made. If we do make this change it will be on a trial basis, and we will continue to honour our commitment to work to restore customers’ power supply within 12 hours under the Guaranteed Standards of Performance scheme.”
A source told The Sun: “This will mean some customers will stay off-supply for the whole night, just to save money. The company always used to put customers first above cost but it’s all about cost-saving now. It’s wrong.”