Storm Austen: What You Can Claim If Your Power Goes Out — Your Compensation Rights Explained

Downed power lines and fallen trees in the aftermath of a storm. Photo: Arlington County, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (representative image).

As I write this, Storm Austen is doing exactly what the Met Office said it would. The amber warning kicked in at 3am across Cornwall, Devon, the Isles of Scilly and Plymouth — gusts of 60 to 70mph, with exposed headlands taking 80mph. And the lights are already going out. The live tracker at preparedbritain.co.uk was showing 195 active cuts and roughly 6,539 homes off supply across all six networks publishing data, with Darlington, Wiltshire and Waverley among the worst hit.

Here's the thing most people never realise until it's too late: if Austen knocks your power out, money is probably owed to you. Not a voucher. Not a goodwill gesture. Actual compensation, set down in Ofgem's rules, paid by your local network operator. The Sun ran through the numbers this morning, and they're worth knowing before you're sitting in the dark.

What you can claim in a storm

Storms get their own category under the compensation rules — and the amounts are more generous than the normal ones. Ofgem assigns every severe-weather outage a storm category based on how hard the network was hit, not on what the Met Office called it. Category 1 means faults ran 8 to 12 times the daily average; category 2 means more than 12 times. Austen's category will be decided on that maths, street by street.

Category 1 storm: if you're without power for 24 hours, you get £90 — then £45 for every additional six-hour stretch. So 42 to 48 hours off works out at £225 (£90 plus three lots of £45). Uswitch's current guide puts the maximum severe-weather payout at £2,235, reflecting inflation adjustments since Ofgem raised the cap.

Category 2 storm: the bar is higher — 48 hours without power before the £90 kicks in — then £45 for each extra six hours, up to the same maximum.

And if your cut isn't storm-caused — a fallen cable on a calm day, say — the ordinary rules apply: £100 if fewer than 5,000 homes are affected and you're off for more than 12 hours.

How to actually get the money

This is the part that trips people up. The compensation doesn't come from your energy supplier — the company whose name is on your bill. It comes from your distribution network operator: National Grid, Northern Powergrid, UK Power Networks, SSEN, SP Energy Networks or Electricity North West, depending on where you live.

In theory the payment is automatic — it should land as a credit or bank transfer without you lifting a finger. In practice, here's what I'd do anyway: write down the exact time your power went off and came back on. Take a photo of a dark room with a timestamp if you like. If nothing shows up on your statement within a few weeks, chase the network operator directly and quote the Electricity (Standards of Performance) Regulations. You have three months to claim, but don't let it drift.

Two more things worth knowing tonight. If your power's off, call 105 — free from any phone in England, Scotland and Wales — to report it and get updates. And if anyone in your house depends on powered medical equipment, join the Priority Services Register now; the networks prioritise those households for reconnection.

The wider picture tonight

Austen is the season's first named storm, and it's already rewriting the weekend's plans. Newbury's Friday racing card has been lost to a waterlogged track, with Saturday's card — featuring two Group 3s — in serious doubt pending an 8am Friday inspection. Fakenham has pushed the start of its jumps season back three weeks to November 22. "We hope this will provide the necessary time for conditions to improve," said the BHA's head of racing and betting, Tom Byrne.

Met Office deputy chief forecaster Chris Bulmer summed it up bluntly: Austen will "bring a spell of impactful weather to parts of the UK from Thursday night and through Friday," with the amber warning issued because of "increasing confidence in the potential for disruptive winds across parts of southwest England."

My take? The networks know these rules inside out, and most of us have never read them. Austen is exactly the kind of night the compensation scheme was written for. If your home goes dark, note the times — and don't leave money you were promised sitting in someone else's account.

Sources

• The Sun, "Your rights to compensation if you have a power cut – as Storm Austen set to batter homes across Britain" (22 October 2026) — thesun.co.uk
• Uswitch, "Power Cut Compensation: How Much You Can Claim" (updated guide) — uswitch.com
• Met Office amber wind warning for Storm Austen, 3am–10am Friday (via LADbible, 22 October 2026) — ladbible.com
• Prepared Britain, Storm Austen live power-cut tracker — preparedbritain.co.uk
• The Scottish Sun, "Two major race meetings cancelled with immediate effect" (22 October 2026) — thescottishsun.co.uk