UK power cuts - live updates: Nearly one million people affected by major outages across country with trains, airports and traffic lights impacted
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The UK was hit by a massive power cut on Friday, as traffic lights were knocked out, trains came to a standstill and aircraft were grounded during rush hour.
Large parts of the country were without electricity following the power cut, utility suppliers said, with outages reported in the North West, South West, the Midlands and Wales.
The UK Power Networks tweeted on Friday evening: "We're aware of a power cut affecting large parts of London and South East.
"We believe this is due to a failure on National Grid's network, which is affecting our customers."
Train services in and out of London, including Thameslink, Southern and Gatwick Express saw delays and cancellations on Friday evening.
Please allow the blog a moment to load...
Traffic lights in the capital were also experiencing some problems and the Victoria Line on the London Underground was suspended, Transport for London said.
They tweeted on Friday evening warning people to be cautious when using the roads.
A spokesperson for Northern Powergrid has said 110,000 of its customers lost power.
They said the problem was with the National Grid's transmission network, which distributes high voltage energy from power stations across the UK.
Those affected lost power between around 5.10pm and 6pm.
The power cuts were "quite spread apart, (which is) quite unusual", the spokesperson said.
Additional reporting by PA
The National Grid Electricity System Operator has said the power issue is "resolved".
The Department of Transport has released a statement on today's power cuts.
Transport for London are still working on bringing all traffic signals back online after a “low number” were affected by the power outage.
About 300,000 UK Power Networks customers were hit by the cut, a spokesperson has said.
The supplier, which covers London, the South East and the East of England, said it was first alerted to the issue at 4.53pm.
Power was restored to all customers by 5.21pm, according to the spokesperson.
About 500,000 people were affected in the Western Power Distribution area with power restored shortly after 6pm, according to the company.
The Western Power Distribution area covers the South West, South Wales, and the Midlands.
London Kings Cross Station has been closed to avoid any overcrowding, National Rail has said.
Here are a couple of updates for anyone on Great Northern Rail or Thameslink trains.
Due to the “severity of the disruption this evening”, National Rail has said there will be some disruption to services tomorrow.
More information on those disruptions will be posted as soon as possible.
Some good news and some bad news....
Good news: Transport for London has announced that all traffic signals have been restored in the capital.
Bad news: Major disruption to and from London Kings Cross, St Pancras and across the Great Northern and Thameslink networks is expected to continue until the end of the day.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments