ELECTRICITY bosses today apologised to customers after the Felixstowe area was hit by a power cut for the third time this week.Faulty equipment on the high voltage overhead network caused a blackout for 64 homes in Trimley St Martin just after 4pm on Thursday.
By Richard Cornwell
ELECTRICITY bosses today apologised to customers after the Felixstowe area was hit by a power cut for the third time this week.
Faulty equipment on the high voltage overhead network caused a blackout for 64 homes in Trimley St Martin just after 4pm on Thursday. Power was restored to all customers affected by 8.07pm.
The day before a fault on the low voltage underground network in the seafront area interrupted power to 125 homes and businesses.
A spokeswoman for electricity distributors EDF Energy said the blackout happened in the Sea Road area at 4.39pm on Wednesday.
The company carried out work to locate and repair the fault through the night and power was restored to 41 customers at 6pm and to 83 customers at 12.30am Thursday . Power was restored to the last customer affected at 2.30am.
She said the company apologised to customers for any inconvenience caused.
On Monday, part of the town centre was disrupted for six hours with businesses losing trade after a blackout caused by an underground fault.
More than 100 homes, shops and offices were affected by what was at first thought to have been a blown fuse in the substation in Gainsborough Road.
Those caught in the power cut which struck at 9.30am, were mystified at first as businesses next door or in the same building were not affected.
Householders discovered that their home might be the only property in a row without electricity.
While larger stores switched to back-up generators, some small shops were forced to close for the day as they had no lighting and could not use tills or computers.
One trader said staff were having to take down details of all sales by hand and would then have to spend hours later inputting these into the computer. Another concern was the effect on goods stored in fridges and freezers.
However, they were told that they were not entitled to compensation as the power disruption had not been long enough.
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