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The Energy Blog What to do in the event of a power cut

If you had a power cut would you know what to do? Be prepared in the event of an outage with this step-by step guide. You might like to print it off and keep it by your fuse board along with a torch and spare batteries.

If your lights go out and your sockets fail, there could be a number of reasons:

  • Your trip switch may have operated
  • Jersey Electricity's main service fuse in your home may have operated
  • If you have a Pay As You Go Meter, you may have run out of credit
  • You may have exceeded your service capacity
  • There may be a power cut or network fault in your area

FIRST: check the loss of power is total; that is all lights and power sockets are affected. If it is not a total loss of power, the problem will be within your home and you will need an electrician to attend.

SECOND: If is a total loss of power, check your trip switch, which in the majority of cases is located next to your main fuse box or the electricity meter.

Remember on this type of device:

  • UP position is ON
  • DOWN position is OFF

If the trip switch is OFF (usually down)

  1. Try to switch it back on. If the switch trips immediately you have a fault in an appliance or in the wiring of your property.
  2. Leave the trip switch off, unplug all appliances and turn off your immersion heater, oven and hob.
  3. Try the trip switch again.
  4. If it stays on, one by one begin to switch your appliances back on. By this process of elimination, you should find the faulty appliance. Leave that appliance unplugged or switched off and call the service agent.
  5. If the switch still refuses to re-set, double check that all equipment has been switched off. If everything has been unplugged or switched off and the switch will not re-set you may have a fault in the wiring.

Do not attempt to trace the fault yourself, call us on 505460 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, or 505050 24-hour emergency call out and we will send out an electrician to your property. If the fault is found to be on our wiring, the service is free; if the fault is on your wiring a call-out charge applies.

If the trip switch is ON (usually up)

  1. Check to see if your neighbours still have their electricity supply. At night look outside to see if the street lights are on. If everywhere is off, call our emergency number 505050. Do not assume we are aware that you have lost supply.
  2. If your neighbours still have their electricity supply and you appear to be the only house without supply first check that (if installed) your main isolator fuse has not tripped. This could be located in an outside cupboard or in a communal switch room.
  3. If your isolator fuse has NOT tripped, our JE main service fuse to your home may have operated. Call our emergency number 505050.

Advice if you have an electronic meter

  1. Check if you can you see a display on the meter. Be aware that modern meters have a sleep function on the display. This can be checked by pressing ANY button on the screen to check if there is still a supply going to the meter. If you can see a display, then the main JE fuse has not operated and your loss of power could be a fault with your main isolator fuse / installation. This is your responsibility and though JE electricians will be happy to attend, you will be charged for the call-out.
  2. Modern meters also have an overload functionality to safeguard the fuse / services in certain situations. If the display reads ‘Overload’ follow the on-screen instructions to re-enable the meter and restore power. If the situation continues, you will need to reduce your load by turning off appliances and report the matter to JE on 505460, 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday

Advice for Pay As You Go (PAYG) customers:

  1. If you run out of credit you will have to invoke emergency credit on your meter. This will put your meter in debt and you will have to charge your key at a retail outlet next day sufficiently to return the meter to credit before the emergency credit runs out and the power disconnects.

The majority of our PAYG meters will not disconnect during the night between the hours of 9pm and 7.30am.

  1. If you run out of credit during these hours your meter will go into debt. You will need to invoke the £5 emergency credit at 7.30am. Any debt accrued overnight will be deducted and you will need to charge your key before the emergency credit runs out and by a sufficient amount to cover the debt and your usage.
  2. If you allow the meter to run out of emergency credit outside the hours 9pm-7.30am, the power will automatically disconnect until you re-charge it.

If your lights and power go off outside these times:

  1. Check that you have unused credit on the meter. If you DON’T, top up at one of the many Island-wide outlets listed on our website www.jec.co.uk
  2. If there IS unused credit on your meter, there may be a fault and you should call 505460, 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, or 505050 in an out-of-hours emergency.

Our engineers are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If the fault is due to a failure of our own equipment, the service is free. If, however, the fault proves to be within the customer’s own property or equipment, unfortunately we will make a call-out charge.

Jersey benefits from a very reliable electricity supply, however, we do not guarantee that we will deliver electricity through our network at all times or that electricity delivered through our network will be free of brief variations in voltage or frequency. Where necessary, customers should protect their installations and sensitive appliances from full or partial supply interruptions and variations in voltage or frequency. If you have to claim from your insurance company for damage to any equipment, we will provide a letter confirming details of any incident which resulted in loss of power. Please contact our Customer Care Team on 505460.

In the event of a large scale or Island-wide power cut, whether you are a residential or business customer, you can obtain the latest information by following Jersey Electricity on Twitter @electric jersey.

Your Customer Number

Your 5 character Customer Number can be found in the top right and bottom left corners of your bill.

Example electricity bill with the customer number highlighted

Daily Service Charge

The Daily Service Charge covers energy support services such as metering, billing, Customer Care, safety obligations and other energy support services.

Off-peak

Off-peak means not at the most popular time. Some of our tariffs provide discounted rates at off-peak times - for example, during certain periods at night.

Off peak charging times

Our current off peak electric vehicles times are from 00:00 to 06:59.

Dedicated supply circuit

A dedicated supply circuit is an electrical circuit that is set aside for a specific purpose, such as powering a boiler. It will work with a single appliance only.

It will have its own circuit breaker in your fuse box, and no other device or appliance will be able to draw power from it. A dedicated supply circuit ensures that appliances can draw the current they need without overloading your system, blowing a fuse or tripping an electric circuit.

Invoice Number

This can be found on the top right corner of your bill here

Example electricity bill with invoice number

Premise Number

This can be found on the top right corner and bottom left corner of your bill.

Example electricity bill with premise number highlighted

Payment Slip

This can be found at the bottom of your bill here

Bill payment slip example

Peak Load

Peak load or peak demand is a short period when the demand for electricity is at its highest.

Kilowatt Hours

Electricity consumption is usually measured in kilowatt hours, or kWh for short. Each kWh of electricity equates to 'one unit of electricity' for billing purposes. A 1kW (1,000 Watts) appliance in use for one hour = 1kWh (one unit). The cost per unit used depends on which tariff you are on.

Three phase

Residential homes are usually served by a single-phase power supply, while commercial and industrial facilities usually use a three-phase supply.

One difference between single-phase and three-phase is that a three-phase power supply better accommodates higher loads. Single-phase power supplies are most commonly used when typical loads are lighting or heating, rather than large electric motors.

Another important difference between 3-phase power and single phase power is the consistency of power delivery. Because of the variations in voltage, single-phase power supply does not offer the same consistency as a three-phase power supply. A three-phase power supply delivers power at a steady, constant rate.

kVA

A kVA is simply 1,000 volt-amps. A volt-amp, or ampere, (VA) is the voltage times the current feeding an electrical load.

Embedded generator

Embedded generators like wind turbines and solar panels are connected to your electricity supply and provide electricity for onsite use. They also have the capability to export back to the grid.

Smart Card Number

Your Smart Card Number is the 19-digit number displayed below the barcode on your Smart Card.

The Smart Card Number also contains your six-digit Meter Number that is also displayed on your meter. You need this to top up a Smart Pay As You Go Meter whether at a Payzone outlet or online.

Example of Smart card for meter charging

Smart Card

A Smart Card contains your unique Smart Card Number used when topping up a Smart Pay As You Go Meter.

Example of a smart card for meter charging

F-Credit

F-credit is a Pay As You Go meter display and means Friendly Credit. It is the period between 9pm and 8am. If the credit on your meter runs out during this period, your supply will remain on until 8am.

Decarbonise

The process of reducing carbon by replacing fossil fuels with fuel that is less harmful to the environment such as low-carbon electricity.

Regenerative braking

With conventional braking systems, the kinetic energy that was propelling the vehicle forward gets converted to unwanted and wasted heat by the friction of the brakes.

Regenerative braking recaptures much of the car's kinetic energy and converts it into electricity, so that it can be used to recharge the car's batteries.

In addition to improving the efficiency of a vehicle, regeneration can significantly extend the life of the braking system, as the mechanical parts will not wear out as quickly.

Power factor

Power factor is the ratio of useful power in kilowatts (kW) to apparent power, measured in kilovolt amperes (kVA). A perfect power factor would be 1.0, however in reality this is almost impossible to achieve. Office buildings are usually between 0.98 and 0.92. Bad power factor is anything below 0.85.

Electric flow boiler

Electric flow boilers are simple to install, quiet in operation, 100% efficient and integrate into most existing radiator or underfloor piped systems. Plus, with no flue or storage tank, an electric boiler is a space-saving option that can be installed almost anywhere in your home.

Approved heating system

A heating system, approved by Jersey Electricity, on a dedicated supply for use on one of our discounted heating tariffs.

To learn more about what's required for an approved heating system, view our current approved heating guidelines.

20-digit payment code

The 20-digit payment code is issued with your receipt for a Pay As You Go (PAYG) meter top-up. If your meter did not charge automatically, you can do it manually with the payment code. Press button A on your meter then key in your 20-digit payment confirmation code on the meter keypad, then press button B. Your meter will recognise the amount paid and charge accordingly.

Single phase

Single-phase power supplies are most commonly used when typical loads are lighting or heating, as in a domestic home, rather than large electric motors and higher loads. Single-phase power is a two-wire alternating current (AC) power circuit.