# The Electricity (Standards of Performance) Regulations 2005, Regulation 9: Supply restoration: multiple interruptions


(1) This regulation applies to an electricity distributor where the supply to a customer’s premises that is directly connected to that electricity distributor’s distribution system is interrupted for four periods, each of not less than three hours, during a relevant year.
(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)—
(a) where successive interruptions are caused by or arise during actions taken by any electricity distributor to effect temporary or permanent restoration of the supply to those premises or to other premises affected by the event which caused the interruption of supply to the premises, any temporary restoration of supply for a period not exceeding three minutes shall be ignored in calculating the period of the interruption;
(b) the period of an interruption shall be deemed to start at the first time at which the distributor;
(i) is informed by a customer that the supply to the customer’s premises has been interrupted; or
(ii) is informed by a person other than the customer or is otherwise made aware by the operation of any automatic system operated by the distributor of circumstances in which the supply to the customer’s premises has been interrupted or may reasonably be expected to have been interrupted; and
(c) an interruption in any of the circumstances described in paragraph (3) shall not be treated as an interruption.
(3) The circumstances described in this paragraph are—
(a) within the period of three hours after the interruption began;
(i) the customer informed the distributor that the customer did not wish the distributor to take any action or any further action;
(ii) the customer agreed with the electricity distributor that the action taken by the distributor before the expiry of that period should be treated as the taking by the distributor of the action required to cause the interruption to cease and, where that action included a promise to perform any action (whether within or after the expiry of that period) the distributor duly performed that promise; or
(iii) it was not reasonably practicable for an electricity distributor to take the action required to cause the interruption to cease as a result of the existence of circumstances by reason of which the distributor could reasonably have expected that if it took that action it would have been or would be likely to have been in breach of an enactment (including any directions given by the Secretary of State under section 96 of the Act);
(b) the distributor had given to the customer prior notice of its intention or any other electricity distributor’s intention to interrupt the supply to the customer’s premises;
(c) the interruption was a result of a failure of, fault in or damage to either the transmission system to which the electricity distributor’s distribution system or another electricity distributor’s distribution system was connected or a generating station connected to that transmission system;
(d) the interruption was a result of a failure of, fault in or damage to a generating station connected to the distributor’s distribution system or another electricity distributor’s distribution system;
(e) the interruption was one where regulation 5, 6, 7 or 10 applies;
(f) the interruption was a result of the act or default of the electricity supplier to the premises or of the customer;
(g) the cause of the interruption resulted in the interruption of supply to more than 500,000 customers in Great Britain as notified by the Authority to the distributor; or
(h) the interruption, or the inability of an electricity distributor to take the action required in order to cause the interruption to cease before the expiry of the period of three hours after the interruption began, was the result of an event for which emergency regulations have been made under Part 2 of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.
(4) Where this regulation applies, the distributor shall, except in any of the circumstances described in paragraph (5), pay the prescribed sum to the customer.
(5) The circumstances referred to in paragraph (4) are—
(a) that the electricity distributor has not received a claim for compensation from the customer within a period of three months after the expiry of the relevant year in which this regulation applies;
(b) that the interruptions as a result of which this regulation applies were not all in respect of the supply to the same premises; or
(c) that the customer (or where more than one person is the customer, at least one such person) was not the customer of the premises to which the supply was interrupted on the occasion of each of the interruptions as a result of which this regulation applies.
(6) In this regulation, “relevant year” means a period of 12 months commencing on 1 April.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1019/regulation/9 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/electricity-standards-of-performance-regulations-2005/regulation-9
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.