Families and businesses thanked after underground fault causes power cut

A Northern Powergrid spokeswoman confirmed that a fault on the underground power network at 9.45pm yesterday caused a power cut for 1,966 homes and businesses in the Cleadon, East Boldon and South Shields areas.

She added: "Our control room and engineers were able to quickly restore power to 1,225 customers within 30 minutes and the remaining properties were back on at 10.41pm, as our team switched the power around to deliver electricity from an alternative part of our network.

"Our teams will replace the section of the cable which faulted, before returning our network to normal and customers shouldn't see any further disruption as a result of the repair.

"We'd like to thank local residents for their patience whilst we worked to get the lights back on."

Northern Powergrid is the electricity distribution business for North East England, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.

The company delivers power safely and reliably to 8 million customers across 3.9 million homes and businesses.

People across England, Wales and Scotland can call the free number 105 to report or get information about power cuts in their area or report damage to electricity power lines and substations.

Funded by electricity distributors, including Northern Powergrid, it routes people to their local network operator.