Disability Advice North East Suffolk 'extremely concerned' about power cuts

The National Grid has warned households could face a "worst-case scenario" of losing power for up to three hours

A disability charity has said it is "extremely concerned" about possible power cuts in the UK this winter.

Households could face a "worst-case scenario" of losing power for up to three hours, National Grid said.

Disability Advice North East Suffolk said the situation could "become life-threatening" as some disabled people relied on medical equipment at home.

National Grid said local distributors would know who should be prioritised.

The company said it was an "unlikely" scenario but added that supply interruptions were a possibility if the energy crisis escalated and gas supplies ran extremely low.

Disability advice manager Trish Richers said: "For most people this will be an inconvenience but there are people in the disabled community that rely on durable medical equipment, things such as ventilators, oxygen concentrators [and] dialysis machines.

"Some of these only have a two to four-hour battery life. If the battery back up were to fail this could become a life-threatening situation in a matter of hours."

'Stress and worry'

She added that the cost of living crisis was already having an impact as many were already on a low income and some lived on their own so had no support.

"They already use more electricity than most of us and they are already worrying about the financial aspect, paying their bills and whether they can afford to turn their heating on, but this is another level," she said.

"There is also the stress and the worry it's going to cause, and if these people get into a situation where they are going to need hospital treatment, there's going to be a knock-on effect to the NHS which is already overstretched.

"I would like to think that they will be contacted to make sure they can be isolated and can remain on the grid... but if anyone has any concerns, contact us and we can hopefully reassure them."

National Grid Electricity Systems Operators said it was a "very unlikely and extreme scenario" but local electricity network operators "know who their vulnerable customers are and who should be prioritised".