An overview of and update on compensation relating to the recent water supply incident affecting customers in parts of Sheffield and Rotherham (S8, S13, S25, S26, S66, S80, S81 and some surrounding areas).
What happened?
On the evening of Saturday 28th February, a Northern Powergrid issue caused a power failure at one of our pumping stations. When the pumping station stopped working, some of our customers began to experience low pressure or a temporary loss of water supply. Our teams were on site overnight, working to restore operations as quickly as possible. Power was restored to site around 9am on Sunday morning and water was gradually restored to all customers later that day. Tankers were also deployed to support the network while it refilled, and bottled water distribution points were set up to ensure residents had access to drinking water while supplies stabilised.
Our teams moved quickly to deliver bottled water to priority services customers and distribution points, but we recognise that the scale of the incident meant some deliveries were delayed. We understand the impact this may have had and are reviewing our processes and working with our suppliers to ensure a more effective response in future.
As our network got back to normal, some customers may have noticed their water looking discoloured. Find out more information on discolouration.
Compensation for households:
As part of our commitment to you, we will provide compensation payment to all customers significantly impacted by the issue. You don’t need to do anything further. You’ll receive direct communication soon with all the information you need.
We’ll be reviewing any further compensation for this incident on an individual basis and in line with our customer charter.
The way you receive the payment will depend on how you pay your bill. All customers will receive the payment within 20 working days.
If you have a phone number registered to your account, you may have got a text message advising you of the compensation. All customers significantly impacted by the issue will get the payment, regardless of whether you received a text message.
Compensation for businesses and non-household customers:
The payment mentioned above will be paid recently to you via your retailer, in line with our Business Customer Charter. If you experienced loss of business as a result of the issue, please submit your details on this form and we’ll review each case individually.
Download our loss of business form, complete the information required and submit it via our general enquiries page. Once we have received the form, we will be in touch directly with an update when we can.