If you live in Wales, the Midlands or South West England you will know Western Power Distribution as the company who keeps electricity flowing into our homes enabling life to ‘run as normal’.
But did you know, in addition to providing seamless power to 8 million homes over a network of 225,000 km of cables and overhead lines, WPD also invests time and money into ensuring vulnerable people are personally supported to prep for and manage a power cut, plus regional based fuel poverty programmes saving ‘fuel poor’ customers £10 million annually.
We were made aware of this during a meet following their generous award to Life Seeker CIC of £2,000 from their Community Matters fund to host ‘Fresh Air Fun Days’ (more about this here). What left us feeling impressed and thankful, was learning about the huge amount of work happening in the background with a focus on personally supporting the community.
Through this funding process, Western Power Distribution are working closely with the groups they award to educate them and their service users about their Priority Services Register which helps vulnerable people dependent on power, to prepare and deal with power cuts when they do occur. And of course, they’re doing lots of work nationally too to raise awareness of this crucial service.
By joining the FREE Priority Services Register, we were happy to hear that WPD can:
- Provide a dedicated and direct number you can call during a power cut to get straight through to them.
- Agree on a password with you before they visit, so you know you can trust the person at the door.
- Provide special help through the British Red Cross if you need it.
- Keep you up-to-date on any planned interruptions to your power supply.
- Stay in touch with you during an unplanned power cut, including advice on how long it will last.
Of course, the majority of us are generally not inconvenienced by the occasional loss of power, yet it’s important to appreciate there are many who suffer physically and mentally from such an event happening. This includes people such as elderly, very ill or disabled people, or those who rely on power for medical equipment. Consider how people using a stairlift may be affected or those who rely on dialysis or oxygen equipment working to keep them alive. We also briefly touched on people with learning disabilities and autism in our meet who may react to scenarios like this more strongly than others.
Join the Priority Services Register
Anyone is welcome to apply to join the Priority Services Register – visit the Western Power Distribution website to find out more. You can also register directly online by answering a short survey about your needs or enquire to become a ‘referral partner’ if you are part of a group supporting individuals in the community.
Know what to do in a power cut?
To prepare yourself for when a power cut next happens, you can read/download the Power Cut Advice leaflet here and watch several useful videos (with appropriate focus for mental health, hospital leavers, hearing impaired, etc.) on the website including this one below.
If you know someone who can benefit from this kind of support, please share this information with them or better still, give them a helping hand them to add their name to the list.
