Storm Austen power cuts: SSEN reported 2,200 customers off supply on 24 October
SSEN reported 2,200 customers awaiting electricity restoration in its central southern England network at 20:00 BST on 24 October after Storm Austen. The operator also reported restoring supplies to more than 42,400 customers since the storm began. The remaining count is a dated snapshot; the number still without power after that observation has not been verified.
Status of this incident
Partial / reduced supply
Last known status: partly restored · SSEN reported 2,200 customers awaiting restoration at 20:00 BST on 24 October; its expectation of restoring half that night remains unverified.
Source moment: 24 Oct 2026, 19:00 UTC (20:00 local time)
In 20 seconds
SSEN reported 2,200 customers awaiting restoration at 20:00 BST on 24 October in its central southern England network.
More than 42,400 customers restored is a cumulative operator figure, rather than the number still disconnected.
SSEN expected half of the remaining customers to return that night; completed restoration has not been verified.
A dated snapshot of remaining power cuts
The observation in SSEN’s 24 October update is timed at 20:00 BST, equivalent to 19:00 UTC. It records 2,200 customers awaiting restoration across the operator’s central southern England network. This is an observation time, rather than a verified outage start or an individual property’s restoration time. The source gives no exact onset for the interruption.
The count describes customers, without establishing how many people were affected. The update does not provide a complete address list. Its network scope also matters: this figure cannot establish the number of customers without electricity across all of Britain or in another distributor’s service area.
What the sources tell us, and what they do not
- Operator network
- SSEN central southern England network
- Awaiting restoration
- SSEN: 2,200 customers at 20:00 BST on 24 October 2026
- Cumulative reconnections
- SSEN: more than 42,400 customers restored since the storm began
- National Grid cumulative reconnections
- National Grid Electricity Distribution: 131,225 properties restored since the storm began; bulletin dated 24 October 2026, exact observation time unknown
Reconnections and the overnight expectation
SSEN says it had restored supplies to more than 42,400 customers since Storm Austen began. That is a cumulative account of reconnections during the event. It describes a different measure from the 2,200 awaiting restoration at the stated observation time; the two figures should not be added together as a current disconnected total.
The operator expected half of the remaining customers to have their supply restored that night. This was a forecast in the 24 October statement. No later completion has been verified here, so the expectation does not establish that those connections returned or provide a confirmed restoration deadline for every affected address.
National Grid reports its own reconnection figure
National Grid Electricity Distribution’s 24 October bulletin separately reports 131,225 properties restored since Storm Austen began in its own network. This is a cumulative reconnection figure, rather than a count of properties still without electricity. The bulletin gives no precise observation or revision time within that date and no remaining-outage total.
National Grid’s properties and SSEN’s customers describe different units in separate operator networks. Their figures should remain separate: adding them would not produce a verified total of current power cuts across Britain. Neither operator’s cumulative reconnection count establishes that every affected connection has returned.
Planning while an individual connection is uncertain
The runtime calculator can help compare essential-device demand with available battery capacity. The internet backup planner and grid-down essentials guide offer preparation context. These resources do not check a connection’s supply status or establish when the operator will restore it. A later verified operator update is needed to revise the remaining-customer snapshot.