Lights out: Thousands of St Helier residents hit by power cut

Tuesday 17 October 2023

Thousands of people in Jersey were plunged into darkness this evening when a sudden power outage hit vast swathes of St Helier.

Electricity supplies first went down shortly after 19:30, affecting households and street lamps, as well as shops and restaurants.

Affected areas spanned from Havre des Pas to Green Street and Roseville Street, and as far as Clarence Road and Mont Millais.

Power returned to most homes at 20:27, although some customers are still reported to be experiencing an outage.

Many islanders reported being unable to reach Jersey Electricity's emergency hotline.

Jersey Electricity said at the time that it was "aware of a power outage in the St Helier area".

"The team are working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience," the utility company added.

The source of the power cut has not been explained.

It comes little more than a week after an island-wide gas network shutdown affected roughly 4,000 households and 400 businesses. Supply was restored to most premises between Friday and Monday.

Island Energy's CEO Jo Cox said that the problem was the result of "rogue code" in the control system, and that investigations were continuing to establish how it got there. She said she did not suspect it was the result of a hack, but could not rule out a cyber attack.

Earlier this month, St John was also affected by an electricity outage.

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