More than 20,000 homes in south Essex were blacked out early today (Thursday) after a suspected cable fault.
Homes and businesses in Wickford, South Woodham Ferrers, Rayleigh and Southend were left without power after the failure of the 33,000 volt cable at around 7.30am.
Although around 5,000 homes were reconnected by 8am, the rest were expected to be without power for at least three hours.
Matt Rudling, dispatch and services manager at 24/7 - the electricity supply company for the area - said: "We have all the engineers in the area working on it.
"We believe the cause to be a cable fault, but we will investigate this. At the moment our priority is to get the customers back on."
The company were attempting to restore the electricity from a 33,000 volt circuit at a sub-station in Nevendon.
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