NORTHERN Powergrid has given communities impacted by Storm Arwen a vital boost by confirming that “many customers” will receive their money by Christmas.
Earlier this month, 240,000 people were left without power after Storm Arwen battered the North East of England with torrential rain and high winds – leaving some without electricity and heating for up to 12 days.
In the aftermath of the storm, and now families have their power restored, the attention has turned to compensation and financial contributions people will get for the power outage.
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For a typical customer, if you were without power for more than 48 hours, the compensation payment will be £70 for the first 48 hours and £70 for every 12 hours beyond that.
The news of compensation comes after regulator Ofgem announced that it would be lifting the previous £700 cap after Storm Arwen – meaning that customers could claim up to whatever amount they were entitled to.
This announcement from Northern Powergrid that payments could be made before Christmas comes as a welcome relief after early suggestions after Storm Arwen indicated that the compensation would take up to three months to process – leading to outrage from MPs and councillors across County Durham.
In a statement issued yesterday, a spokesperson for Northern Powergrid said: “We understand the strain Storm Arwen has placed on our customers at a difficult time and how important it is that we make compensation payments as swiftly as possible.
“The amount of compensation each customer is entitled to is bespoke, depending on the length of time you were off compared with the length of time the regulations give us to restore supply.
“We have now processed a large amount of the data that will allow us to pay compensation automatically where we already have all the information we need such as the bill payer’s details and duration of your power cut. We will calculate the amount of compensation due and proactively send you a cheque.”
In the coming days, Northern Powergrid have also confirmed that they will be writing to customers, asking for information about how long people were without power, and the costs they incurred during that time.
The spokesperson added: For customers where we do not hold all the information we need, we will send you a letter inviting you to provide the required details.
“You will be able to do this via our secure website, by calling us or by returning the form we will provide. These letters will start to be issued this week. We will let you know when we have written out to all the affected customers so that you may contact us if you have not heard from us by then.
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“All payments will be made via cheque, mitigating the risk of fraud. We will not request any bank details from you at any time.
“Our team is on track to start issuing cheques later this week and has made arrangements to increase our capacity to issue thousands of payments each day. That will enable to us to make as many payments as possible before Christmas.”
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