A year on from Storm Desmond, in which 55,000 properties in the county lost power due to flooding, the region’s network power operator, Electricity North West, has launched an awareness campaign urging people to store their contact details so they can receive support quickly during any unexpected power outages

This marks the third campaign which has helped raise awareness of Electricity North West to 53 percent, however only nine percent of customers are aware that Electricity North West are responsible for keeping the lights on across the North West.

Electricity North West has invested £130m in strengthening and upgrading the network to help keep the lights on for customers this winter. Only 43 percent of their customers in the North West are confident about what to do in a power cut and it’s hoped this will increase further with the launch of the new free national power cut number-105- that customers can call and get straight through to their network operator.

Electricity North West’s head of communications and stakeholder engagement, Michelle Lewis said: “In September we helped to launch the new free national power cut number, 105, and it’s made it even easier for customers to get in touch. We’re here to support our customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week including over the Christmas period and can also provide additional assistance to customer through our Priority Services Register, which is specific to individual needs.

“Raising awareness of who we are and what we do is vital to make sure we can support our customers. If customers don’t call to report a power cut, we don’t always know there is a problem."

Using online, social media, radio and bus advertising, the campaign ‘We power the network that powers your day’ runs until the end of January 2017.