Thousands affected by power cut (From Oxford Mail)

Thousands affected by power cut

9:30am Wednesday 15th February 2012 in News By Laura Jones

A WORKMAN cut through a main underground cable killing power to 100,000 homes and businesses across Oxfordshire yesterday.

Southern Electric said the power cut, which happened between noon and 12.45pm, was caused by a contractor hitting a main underground cable in a field near the Horspath athletics and sports ground in Horspath Road, Cowley. This tripped a safety device on its high voltage network, cutting power across the county.

While some people reported being without power for more than half an hour, many experienced shorter blackouts or an intermittent energy supply. Electricity supplies were lost in parts of Oxford, Witney, Kidlington, Carterton, Bicester, Stonesfield, Chipping Norton, Standlake, Eynsham and Swerford.

People in Jericho, Headington and Woodstock also experienced flickering power at about noon.

An investigation was launched by the utilities company to establish the circumstances leading up to the outage after power had been restored in Oxfordshire.

Southern Electric spokes-man Sam O’Connor said it was not able to name the contractor involved, but it was not someone employed by the company and there were no reports of any injuries.

South Central Ambulance Service said it had not been alerted to the incident.

Last night, engineers from Balfour Beatty were at work fixing the cable after the supply had been re-routed.

Elaine Bellenger, of Monaco Clothing in Old High Street, Headington, said: “It went off for about five or 10 minutes here. A lot of businesses will have been disrupted.

“I had a lady in who was at the orthodontist who couldn’t have any work done.

“I thought it was just that a bulb had blown at first and I was checking the fuse box – I was one of the lucky ones.”

Stagecoach sent a message to passengers on Twitter to say the route 10 bus into the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford was using the old route via Headley Way because of problems with the electronically operated barrier there.

But a hospital spokesman said: “The bus barrier was affected momentarily and within a few minutes they were back on and working.

“The generator cut in almost immediately and theatres continued normally.”

Ms O’Connor, of Southern Electric, said: “We’ve got a very flexible network so we were able to route supply remotely via our control room in Portsmouth.”