‘Unplanned’ power cut impacts businesses on busy Durham street

On the eve of Valentine’s Day, diners were turned away from bookings at restaurants on North Road, Durham because of a power cut. It left some staff tending to their workstations in total darkness.

Coarse, a restaurant on the Michelin Guide, had to cancel at least 50 sittings and its sister brunch venue, Isla, had to stop its afternoon service early.

One Isla staff member said: “We had to cut short lunch and not open in the afternoon.”

Northern Powergrid, the distributor of the street’s electric, said that an issue with underground cables caused the outage and all customers impacted had their power back on by 6:18pm.

A spokesperson for Northern Powergrid said: “At around 4:25pm on 13 February 2025 we were made aware of an unplanned power cut in the DH1 4 areas of Durham affecting 203 customers.

(Image: The Northern Echo) “Customers are always a priority to us, and our online Power Cut Map was updated with the latest information, our 24 hour contact centre were available to provide support to customers on 105 and we contacted customers who shared their details with us via text message within 5 minutes of the fault being reported.

“We also proactively called those signed up to our Priority Services Membership to offer further help and support.

“We thank our customers for their patience while we worked to get their power back on as soon as possible.”