Power Cuts

EDF statement December 2006

Below is a letter from EDF regarding the current faults (9 Nov 2006) and also the 2005 letter to the Parish Clerk

List of power cuts in Redbourn

27 March 2007

I would like to bring to the attention of the Parish Council that the residents of the Church end area suffered another Electricity failure on last Friday evening for approximately 7.5 hours, these continual interruptions to the power supply in our area are far beyond the acceptable level of service being provided by EDF energy.

We have suffered continual supply failures over the last 3.5 years and just recently on these dates below for hours on end.

16th December 2006

18th December 2006

19th December 2006

7th Feb 2007

23 March 2007

And it’s the intention of EDF energy to cut our supply again for the M1 works all day thurs 29th March 2007 this notice was received

By hand on the 25th March 2007 which is not the at least 7 days notice EDF energy states it will give residents of interruptions to the supply.

I have phoned the EDF Works co-ordinator on the contact number repeatedly with no success of the phone being answered.

In the latest Parish council newsletter “EDF energy states that the works would start on the 25th Feb 2007 Can the Parish council

Put pressure on EDF to complete/start these works with the up most urgency on behalf of the Church end residents.

And ask EDF to inform the residents when the planned works are to take place/be completed as it states in our newsletter.

Regards

John Huggett

Meeting of EDF with Parish Council

Representatives from EDF came to the 18th January 2006, 7.30pm Parish Council Meeting, to explain why we have been having problems in Redbourn. The explanation was that equipment is wearing out and that a line refurbishment program will be put in place this spring. 300 poles and 30km of line are to be replaced over a period of 3 to 4 months. There will be some planned power cuts due to this work

EDF Statement

Helen Galley

EDF Energy Press Office

Statement:

EDF Energy Networks sincerely apologises to customers in the Redbourn area who have been experiencing a number of power interruptions over the past couple of months. Intermittent problems of this nature can be caused by windborne debris, animals or branches hitting the overhead power lines. Our overhead cable system is designed to automatically switch off for a short period when it detects a problem of this nature in order to protect the line from more serious, permanent damage. Normally power will be restored in less than a minute, but a fault with the automatic system has meant our engineers have had to manually restore power, which takes longer. Customers in the Redbourn area will have experienced a number of very short interruptions lasting up to five minutes and half a dozen longer interruptions lasting from 20 minutes up to 2 hours in one case.

It can be difficult to pinpoint an intermittent fault of this nature as it does correct itself, but yesterday (21 Dec 06) EDF Energy Networks engineers located a section of burnt-out cable on the overhead network and cut out and replaced this line. Trees in the area were also trimmed back from the lines. Our customer relations team will be calling customers who have been affected by these power interruptions today (22 Dec 06) to explain what has been happening and to reassure them that we have carried out repairs.

Two senior EDF Energy Networks managers will also be meeting with Redbourn Parish Council in January to discuss the problems in the area and to inform them of a £100,000 refurbishment of an 11km section of the overhead network due to take place next spring.

_________________________________

8 Nov 2006 EDF say they have isolated a stretch of Underground cable which had developed a fault. They hope to have this repaired this week. They are also working on locating and fixing the overhead fault.

Below is a letter from EDF regarding the current faults (9 Nov 2006)and also the 2005 letter to the Parish Clerk

Some of the power cuts are listed below, if a date for your part of the village is missing please email us with dates and times or if you were off for longer in your area then let us know. As well as letting the website editors know about your power cut so we can keep a full as possible record, you should to write to EDF energy as well. (see Below for address)

EDF energy intend to cut our supply at Church End again for the M1 works all day Thurs 29th March 2007 this notice was received by hand on the 25th March 2007 which is not the at least 7 days notice EDF energy states it will give residents of interruptions to the supply.

Shorter cuts are listed below the longer cuts

• 07 May 2008 SE corner of village including the Health Centre. 9am for about 13 minutes.

• 17 March 2008, about 9am for 10 minutes. Power flicked on and off first. South end of Village. Tried to ring EDF at 9am got fed up after waiting 15 minutes on their report a fault telephone line.

• 8 November 2007, 15.49 to 16.57. The EDF Energy helpline stated that this affected Redbourn, Flamstead and surrounding areas.
• 06 Nov 2007 about 9.30am for 40 minutes at the top end of the High Street
• 23 Mar 2007 evening for about 7.5 hours Church End
• 07 Feb 2007 8.45am Vaughan Mead and also a cut at Church End
• 18 Jan 2007 nearly 15 Minutes top end of High Street at about 12.40pm
• 09 Jan 2007 about 35 minutes early morning

• 20 Dec 2006 about 40 minutes in the High Street at around 11.40am and 12.20 pm also at Bettespol Meadow and 45 minutes at Rickyard Meadow
• about 1 minute at arouind 8.29pm on 19 December but about 1 Hour at 9pm at Bettespol Meadow and longer at Church End
• 18 December from approx 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Brooke End, High Street & Rickyard Meadow and also a cut at Church End
• 17 December 2006 power cut at 6.30pm for an hour Bettespol Meadows
• about 5 minutes at around 5.05pm 16 December 2006 also Midlde of night cut at Bettespol Meadows
• 16 Dec 2006 a few hours at Church End
• On 25 November 2006 Redding Lane suffered low voltage (flickering lights, many appliances wouldn't work) from 11.30 am until sometime between midnight and 07.30 the next morning. EDF Energy said it was a problem at a local substation
• a short cut on Wednesday 8th November (Silk Mill Road)
• about 1 hour aprox 3am to 4am Monday 6th November (Silk Mill Road)
• a 4 minute cut at around 18.28 on 1 November 2006 (other parts of the village were off for longer eg Silk Mill Road and the west side of the village).
• a 7 minute cut occured around 5.40pm on 27 October 2006,
• a 5 minute cut at 6.35pm on 23 October 2006
• a 20 minute cut at 18.50 on 10 October 2006.

Intermittent power was experienced before the 10 October power cut.

Some short intermittent power cuts are still occurring, for example: -

• 22 October 2007 at 15.20 hrs
• 16 March 2007 15.16 hrs

• 2 September 2006,
• 10 October 2006 (see above)
• early morning on 20 October 2006
• early morning on 31 October 2006
• See above 25 November
• early morning 20 December 2006

Letter dated 9 Nov 2006

Dear Mrs Cahalin

I'm sorry that you have again been affected by a spate of power cuts recently. I realise that you experienced similar problems in the past and I do understand how disruptive this is.

Regrettably faults can occur on any network for a number of reasons, many of which are outside our control. As soon as we were aware of the problem with your power, we made every effort to restore it as soon as possible.

The recent power cuts resulted from an intermittent fault on the high voltage overhead lines bringing power to your area which is proving particularly difficult to find.

We are still working to find a solution to this problem and we have carried out an extensive patrol of the overhead lines and equipment to try and identify the fault location, without success. As this has been unsuccessful we have installed fault indicators along the lines to allow us to narrow down the location of the fault should it occur again.

I assure you that we are as concerned as you that this problem continues and we are doing all we can to resolve this situation as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely John Connelly Customer Relations

Below is a letter to the Parish Clerk from EDF energy, the letter being dated 01 December 2005

_______

Dear Mrs Whiskin

Thank you for inviting Mick David and myself to your Parish Council meeting on 17 November to talk about the electricity supply problems in Redbourn. Again, I’m sorry for any inconvenience these power cuts caused.

I hope that you will be able to publish the following information in your Parish magazine.

As there had been an unusually high number of power cuts in the Redbourn area we carried out a foot patrol along the high voltage overhead line route to try and identify the causes of these power cuts.

During the patrol, we identified several locations where trees were growing in close proximity to the overhead lines. I am pleased to confirm that we have brought our tree cutting programme forward and are currently tree trimming in the area. This will ensure that we maintain an adequate clearance from the lines to ensure there are no problems with trees coming into contact with the overhead lines.

We also found two porcelain surge diverters which had cracked, possibly as a result of a lightning strike. They could have caused brief interruptions during damp weather due to water ingress. These have since been replaced

Our local Planning Engineer has been closely monitoring the performance of this circuit and is investigating the possibility of replacing several spans of overhead line with underground. He is currently liaising with the land owner concerned to gain the necessary consents.

Please let me assure you that we are determined to give you a secure and reliable electricity supply. We will continue to closely monitor the performance of this circuit and if a problem is found we will remove it from the network immediately.

I hope that you will find this information to be helpful.

Yours sincerely

Mary Preece (Dec 2005)

Customer Relations Manager

EDF Energy Networks branch, Fore Hamlet, Ipswich, Suffolk IP3 8AA

_

EDF telephone operatives were telling complainants August 2005 that the some faults were due to trees touching the line and that action would be taken! On the 2006 occasions they have not offered reasons for the cuts and this includes when they phone back later to report progress or check power has been restored. Some phone calls were made to residents on 22 Dec 2006 to explsin the problems.

________

Loss of electrical supply due to supply failure

0800 783 8838 to report a power cut or failure.

_______

EDF Energy has a registered office at 40 Grosvenor Place, Victoria, London SW1X 7EN

The chief executive is listed on their website as V de Riaz.(Nov 06)