With the recent stormy weather, you might be wondering how you can prepare for an unexpected power outage – particularly how you’ll stay warm and fed, and how you can stay in contact with people.

Power cuts can be unexpected and worrying, especially if your power doesn’t come back on quickly. Keep reading to find out who you can report an outage to and what you can prepare to make things easier if your power does go down. 

First, if you lose electricity due to stormy weather or another unexpected cause, your electricity network operator is responsible for fixing it. Your operator provides the wires to your home and they’re different from your electricity supplier, which is the company that sends your bills. To report an outage to your electricity operator, call free on 105.   

In most cases it’s your electricity that will go off in a storm, but it can seem like your gas is disrupted because you usually need electricity to start up a gas boiler. Gas pipes tend to be underground, safe from storm damage, unlike pylons and overhead cables. That said, if you smell gas or your carbon monoxide detector is beeping, turn off the boiler, go outside, and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.  

If you’re on a heat network, also known as district heating, your supplier should contact you or your landlord about an outage. Citizens Advice can provide specialist heat network advice if you’re without power and haven’t heard from anyone – call our consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133. Lines are open from 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday – excluding bank holidays. 

You might be entitled to compensation if a power cut isn’t fixed within 24 hours – check the Citizens Advice website to see how much you could get. It’s also worth noting that some power cuts are planned. You should be told in advance if there’s going to be one in your area – if you aren’t or if you don’t receive the proper notice, you may also be eligible for compensation. 

Next, here’s a checklist of things you can do to prepare in case your power isn’t restored quickly after an outage: 

• Check you’ll be able to keep warm. There’s a high chance you won’t have any central heating without power, so make sure you have access to blankets and extra layers. If you’d feel safer, you might want to plan to stay with friends or family, or check where your local warm welcome space is on the Plymouth City Council website.

• Check you’ll have a way to contact people. To make sure you can stay in touch with people during a power cut, charge all devices like mobile phones and tablets using battery power banks. If you don’t have anything like this, write down important phone numbers and keep them safe – non-digital phones might still work while your power’s down. 

• Have food at home that you can eat easily. Ideally, stock food with a long use-by date, like tinned fish, beans and soups. If you’re not able to boil water to make baby formula, you can use pre-mixed formula.  

• Check if you can sign up to the Priority Services Register (PSR). This can give you additional support during a power cut, like regular updates and a special number to ring if you need extra support. You might be able to sign up if you’re disabled, pregnant or have young children. See the full list of eligibility criteria and how to sign up on the PSR website.

For more information and advice about power cuts, visit the Citizens Advice website.