Power cut in Birmingham: Why Kings Norton residents were left in darkness & how to check supply at your home

The electricity supply to homes in south Birmingham suddenly shut down last night (Saturday, February 9) leaving homes in darkness.

Homes in Kings Norton, B38, were affected by the outage which saw TVs, lights, burglar alarms and more without power. Residents reported that a similar outage occurred last Sunday. 

The electricity power supply to homes in Birmingham is overseen by National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) which was formerly known as Western Power Distribution and is the UK’s largest electricity distribution network which services nearly eight million customers in the East and West Midlands.

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The organisation said that last night’s outage was caused by an underground cable fault which they are currently investigating. A spokesperson told BirminghamWorld: “Last night’s power cut was caused by an underground cable fault in Station Road and Westhill Road which we are currently investigating to carry out repairs. Customer’s power supplies went off from 22:04 to 23:29. Homes were restored in stages. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

How can I find out when my power supply will be restored if I am affected by a power cut in Birmingham? 

NGED has an online tool which residents affected by power cuts can check while power is off to find out what is happening - and when they can expect their supply to restart.

This morning 81 homes in B21 8HB, B21 9QD, B21 9QE, B21 9QG, B21 9RR areas are affected by a power outage which is due to be repaired by 1pm. You can check latest incidents of power outages at: Power Cuts at National Grid https://powercuts.nationalgrid.co.uk/