Storm Boelo reached the north of England on the weekend of 24 and 25 October 2026. Cumbria and Lancashire took the worst of it, with gusts of 78mph at St Bees. By the Monday, SP Electricity North West, the company that runs the local power lines across the north west, had reconnected more than 80,000 properties and had around 3,000 still to go.

(It was plain Electricity North West until last year, when it joined Iberdrola's ScottishPower group and took the new name.)

The number: £2,235. That's the most a household in Great Britain can be paid for one storm power cut, at the rates that started in April 2026. You'd have to be off for roughly a fortnight to reach it, so most people get far less, but it's still money that should turn up without you asking.

This week: the people who actually fix your power, the payments you get when it stays off, storm or no storm, and why Northern Ireland is different. The British figures here cover England, Scotland and Wales.

Your supplier sends the bill, but someone else fixes the wires

The company whose name is on your bill buys the energy and charges you for it. The poles, cables and substations on your street are run by a different company, your distribution network operator, which we'll call your network company from here on. Which one you have depends on where you live, and theirs are the vans you see out in the rain when the lines come down.

So the first call goes to them. Ring 105, a free number that puts you through to whichever network company covers your address, or report the cut on the network company's website. The one exception is a faulty meter, which is a job for your supplier.

The 12-hour clock on an ordinary day

Ofgem, the energy regulator for Great Britain, sets minimum service rules called guaranteed standards. Break one and your network company has to pay you.

Outside a storm, the company has 12 hours to get you back on. If it misses that, a household is owed £100, plus £45 for every further 12 hours you stay off. When one fault cuts off 5,000 or more properties at once, the first deadline stretches to 24 hours, and the payments in that situation stop at £400.

Ofgem says these payments come automatically, by cheque, bank transfer or as a credit through your supplier, and if one is late the company may owe you an extra £40.

When the storm rules kick in

What counts as a storm comes down to a fault count on the company's higher voltage network, the bigger lines that feed the cables in your street. Category 1 means at least eight times the normal number of faults in 24 hours, and category 2 means 13 times or more. Lightning works differently, because a lightning storm stays in category 1 however many faults it causes.

The clock runs longer in a storm, with 24 hours to fix things in category 1 and 48 in category 2. After that a household is owed £90, a little less than on an ordinary day, then another £45 for every six hours without power, up to the £2,235 cap.

Boelo is a category 2 storm, the north west's network company says. If your lights went out on the Saturday night and came back 60 hours later, you'd get £90 at the 48-hour mark and two lots of £45, making £180.

The amounts are linked to inflation, which is why the cap is such an odd number.

The company says it will contact everyone who qualifies, by text or letter, once Ofgem's formal process begins, and that there's no need to get in touch.

Receipts, the priority register and the £100 for repeated cuts

Some network companies will also cover what a long cut costs you. For Boelo, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), which covers the north of Scotland and central southern England, is offering anyone off for more than 12 hours up to £30 per person for every 24 hours without power, towards food, drink and emergency supplies. Anyone off for more than 48 hours can claim accommodation too.

Unlike the Ofgem payments, you claim those yourself, on SSEN's website, and you'll need itemised receipts.

The Priority Services Register is a free list of people who need extra help, and your supplier and network company each keep one. You can join if, say, someone at home has reached state pension age or lives with a long-term medical condition. In a power cut that means practical support, such as a battery pack for charging a phone or medical equipment.

It pays nothing extra, but on the second cold night that help can beat any cheque. If someone at your address is older, disabled or relies on powered medical equipment, join before the next storm, not during it.

Repeated cuts count too. If your power goes off four times or more in a year counted from 1 April, each time for at least three hours, you're owed an extra £100. This is the one payment you must ask for, and the deadline is three months after the year ends, so by the end of June.

Northern Ireland: no storm payments, for now

In Northern Ireland the wires belong to NIE Networks, Northern Ireland Electricity Networks, and the rules come from the Utility Regulator, not Ofgem. NIE Networks has service standards too, but its own guidance says that during extreme weather the standard for restoring power does not apply, so a storm pays nothing.

That may change.

On 22 July 2026 the Economy Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, told the Assembly, Northern Ireland's parliament, that customers "should receive payments when they are left without electricity for a period of time as a result of severe weather events". Her officials are to work out the detail within this Assembly term, though the Utility Regulator, she said, is not proposing to change the exemption for now.

What it means for you

Your bills. In Britain the storm money comes from the network company, and the only payment you have to claim is the one for repeated cuts. If you haven't been paid after a few months, Ofgem says to chase the company up and mention the extra £40 for a missed payment.

Your street. When a storm is forecast, charge your phone and a power bank, and save 105 in your contacts. Keep receipts for anything you buy to get through a long cut, because a scheme like SSEN's needs them.

The short version

1. In Great Britain your local network company pays you if you're off too long, up to £2,235 per storm.

2. Ordinary cuts pay £100 after 12 hours, and storms pay £90 after 24 or 48 hours, without you having to claim.

3. Northern Ireland's rules switch off in extreme weather, and the minister wants that changed.

What we don't know yet

SP Electricity North West says it is in the final phase of its Boelo recovery, with permanent repairs under way and more than 7,500 calls made to customers, but it has not yet said when the guaranteed standard payments will go out. Nor is there a date for Northern Ireland's storm payments. We'll keep score on both.

Tell us in the comments how long your power was off, and whether the payment turned up.

If you know someone who sat through Boelo in the dark, forward this to them.

If you want the bigger picture, our report on Ofgem's next five-year deal with the network companies looks at what they want to spend from April 2028. For the Boelo numbers as they came in, the company's 26 October update is on The Wire, our infrastructure news feed. Our live map shows what's being built near you: gridteamai.com/map-explorer.

The cables and substations behind your power supply, and the upgrades under way, are on our grid page at gridteamai.com/energy-and-grid.

The next issue lands on Thursday, and the next explainer the Monday after. See you next week.

Anthony

Sources

1. SP Electricity North West, Engineers make good progress but conditions worsening following Storm Boelo, 26 October 2026. https://news.enwl.co.uk/news/engineers-make-good-progress-but-conditions-worsening-following-storm-boelo, and ScottishPower, New look for SP Electricity North West, 4 August 2025. https://www.scottishpower.com/w/new_look_for_sp_electricity_north_west

2. Met Office, Warnings in place as Storm Boelo to impact UK, 23 October 2026, updated 24 October 2026. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news-and-media/media-centre/weather-and-climate-news/2026/amber-warning-issued-for-storm-boelo-as-storm-austen-moves-through

3. Ofgem, Check if you can get a payment for a power cut, checked 28 October 2026. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/power-cuts

4. SSEN Distribution, The Guaranteed Standards of Performance Customer Payment Scheme, April 2026. https://www.ssen.co.uk/globalassets/about-us/performance-standards/docs/performance-standards---demand-customers-2026.pdf, and Ofgem, Adjustments to Guaranteed Standards of Performance 2026, 13 March 2026. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/guidance/adjustments-guaranteed-standards-performance-2026

5. The Electricity (Standards of Performance) Regulations 2015, regulations 5, 6, 7 and 10 and Schedule 2, legislation.gov.uk, checked 28 October 2026. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/699/schedule/2

6. Electricity North West, Storm Boelo, and Compensation for Storm Boelo power interruptions (category 2, £90 after 48 hours, £45 per further six hours, £2,235 cap), checked 28 October 2026. https://www.enwl.co.uk/power-cuts/storm-boelo/ and https://www.enwl.co.uk/power-cuts/storm-boelo/compensation/

7. SSEN, Storm Boelo: reimbursement and compensation, 27 October 2026. https://www.ssen.co.uk/power-cuts-emergencies/storm-boelo/

8. Our sums, from sources 3, 4 and 6. Category 2, 60 hours off: £90 at 48 hours plus £45 at 54 and 60 hours = £180. Time to reach the cap: £90 + 48 × £45 = £2,250, capped at £2,235, so 24 + 48 × 6 = 312 hours (13 days) in category 1 and 336 hours (14 days) in category 2. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/power-cuts

9. Ofgem, Join your supplier's Priority Services Register, checked 28 October 2026. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/your-energy-supply/how-manage-your-energy-supply/join-your-suppliers-priority-services-register

10. NIE Networks, Compensation for power cuts in severe weather, checked 28 October 2026. https://www.nienetworks.co.uk/help-advice/faqs/unplanned-power-cuts/compensation-for-power-cuts-in-severe-weather

11. Department for the Economy (Northern Ireland), Written statement: review of electricity guaranteed standards of service and overall standards of performance, 22 July 2026. https://www.economy-ni.gov.uk/articles/written-statement-review-electricity-guaranteed-standards-service-and-overall-standards-performance-22-july-2026

12. Ofgem, Framework decision for the electricity distribution price control (ED3), 30 April 2025. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/decision/framework-decision-electricity-distribution-price-control-ed3