topic Re: National grid power loss. in Everything else

National grid power loss.

Surfer — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 11:44:37 GMT

Yesterday the power to our area went off at about 3.30pm and was eventually restored at about 7.30pm. About 439 homes were affected or a couple of square miles. No storm, wind or rain in our area which raises the concern of what coudl occur if we did have a violent storm.

Our local rural exchange is about 2 miles away and we are FTTC connected. We also have a back up UPS for wifi, 240v inverter to power lights, small Tv or radio, gas lamps, camping gas stove, gas BBQ and torches in every room etc. The exchange was also affected by the loss of power and after about 2 hours it also failed when the batteries were depleted.

Unfortunately after about 2 hours we had no connection to the exchange and we were without Internet or phones and could not communicate with anyone. Modem was still operation, but no data could be processed due to exchange shutting down. Once the power came back on, it took about 20-30 minutes before data could be processed.

Admittedly I never tried the emergency services, but there was no signal to the mast that serves our area even when I went to an area within walking distance where we knew we could get signal. I think the networks share one mast for our area? I doubt even if a DAB radio would have worked and they want to shut down FM masts?

Brazen thieves could in full view of yourself steal your car, break into home while you are there, steal your goods etc and you cannot phone the police because the landlines have been removed by BT. I wonder if the government thought of this when pushing for landlines etc to be dumped?

A solution is to use the rather expensive Starlink at £35 a month for speeds up to 100mbps, but we are stuck in Plus net contract until Nov 2026. At least with Starlink we could communicate with the outside world or even watch TV. Just to add that this is not the first or second time we have had long power breaks, but to be left with no communication is a concern. A bit of a quandary as cannot afford Starlink and also paying Plus net?

Re: National grid power loss.

Longliner — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 13:23:00 GMT

Even if your DAB radio did work you won't have it for long. We bought one a few years after launch and found that the battery life is less than 24 hours, apparently because its little microchip brain is always on. Short of keeping a lorryload of AA batteries we went back to our old FM radio which lasts about 10 days on two AA batts. And the Govt -- both this one and previous -- warns us to keep a radio handy for civil emergencies ...

Re: National grid power loss.

Surfer — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 13:29:13 GMT

We are thinking of buying one of those wind up radios. Apparently some come with a light and you can recharge a mobile phone. These radios have rechargeable batteries and they get charged using the crank handle on the radio?

Looked into Starlink reviews and customer service is non existent so that idea has been binned!

Re: National grid power loss.

PhilipHeyes — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 15:16:25 GMT

If you must stay in touch during a local outage grab your mobile and laptop
and decamp to a hotel or pub that has lights & internet on.

Re: National grid power loss.

Longliner — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 15:54:19 GMT

This assumes that the facility still has power. We have had power cuts in which one area circuit trips for some reason, the load being transferred to the next one and so on. The resulting overload may trip the next area, then the next one ... most of Spain was blacked out for a day last year, and a few years back Chile suffered a country-side outage for several days

Current net zero policies may well land UK in the same position, and there's a real risk of interlink cables being disrupted by hostile powers. I bought a 2kW generator last year to run our heating, fridge-freezer, computers and comms etc even though there may be nobody to contact if exchanges etc go down.

Re: National grid power loss.

Jonpe — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 17:09:11 GMT

Here in west London huge power-hungry data centres are planned which will put a strain on the power grid and be prioritised over private homes when it comes to power supply. And here is the best bit: 'Green' energy such as solar and wind power isn't reliable enough for these monsters so they will need 'traditionally generated' power. Net zero anyone?

Looking on the bright side, we'll probably be among the first to get hit if we get nuked so we won't be left to suffer civil unrest, food shortages etc.