Power-cut Notifications, ..has it begun already?

[Mr Gus]

Woke up this morning due to my electric blanket being on full ...turned out wife received 3 power company texts alerting us to power cuts (we dont normally get this kind of message whatsoever)

Full on, one hour is its default "apparently"

[nowty]

Got one last week on a several hour power cut.

It seems there is some government project sending us address based (registered mobile address) txt messages for floods, power cuts or other catastrophe. There seems to be an automatic opt in, and you can opt out if you know how to do it.

[smegal]

Got one last week on a several hour power cut.

It seems there is some government project sending us address based (registered mobile address) txt messages for floods, power cuts or other catastrophe. There seems to be an automatic opt in, and you can opt out if you know how to do it.

I assume it's based on energy accounts.

I get electricity service notifications for my rentsl house, but not main home (my wife is the main person on the home energy account).

[Oldgreybeard]

I assume it's based on energy accounts.

I get electricity service notifications for my rentsl house, but not main home (my wife is the main person on the home energy account).

Isn't there supposed to be an "air gap" between DNOs and suppliers, though?

I thought that a key part of the privatisation of the old electricity boards was that there should be no exchange of customer data when the same parent company ended up on both sides of the new divide - companies that did end up running both DNO side businesses and supplier side businesses were supposed to put hard barriers in place to ensure that personal data couldn't be transferred from one to the other.

In this case, SSEN the DNO (who are a different company to SSE/OVO the supplier) are not supposed to be able to access any supplier personal data from any other SSE supplier side company. If they are able to do this then that's a breach of the data protection regs I believe.

[nowty]

Got one last week on a several hour power cut.

It seems there is some government project sending us address based (registered mobile address) txt messages for floods, power cuts or other catastrophe. There seems to be an automatic opt in, and you can opt out if you know how to do it.

I assume it's based on energy accounts.

I get electricity service notifications for my rentsl house, but not main home (my wife is the main person on the home energy account).

I think its more than that as I also had an auto opt in txt from the Environment Agency about future flood warnings.

I knew I had read something about it,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62549122

And here,
https://www.gov.uk/alerts/when-you-get-an-alert

[Oldgreybeard]

I think its more than that as I also had an auto opt in txt from the Environment Agency about future flood warnings.

I knew I had read something about it,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62549122

And here,
https://www.gov.uk/alerts/when-you-get-an-alert

Sounds great in principle, but I can't help thinking that the most vulnerable, who may benefit most from getting early warning of any event, most probably won't be able to receive warnings this way. We get more than the average number of power cuts here, for example, yet this system wouldn't work for us, or for any of our neighbours, as there's no reception here.

Something we learned during the early days of the pandemic (we as in the local community support group that was set up) was that there were large numbers of vulnerable people within our local community that didn't own or use a smart phone, for example. We wanted to set up a way for people to be able to contact the CSG, as well as a way for the CSG to pass information back to a group of potentially vulnerable people. We looked at a few technology based options, but ended up falling back to bits of printed paper and phone numbers, as that was pretty much the only way we could be sure to be able to stay in contact with quite a lot of people.

One rather shocking surprise from that exercise was just how many people there were living in the local area that were vulnerable (either from age or from other conditions making them susceptible to more severe illness) and who were living on their own, with no support, or in many cases no contact, with any family. I'm sure that when we were running the prescription medicine and grocery delivery service to many of these people we were the only contact with the outside world some had. Really sad to know there are so many people that just aren't cared about.

[smegal]

I assume it's based on energy accounts.

I get electricity service notifications for my rentsl house, but not main home (my wife is the main person on the home energy account).

Isn't there supposed to be an "air gap" between DNOs and suppliers, though?

I thought that a key part of the privatisation of the old electricity boards was that there should be no exchange of customer data when the same parent company ended up on both sides of the new divide - companies that did end up running both DNO side businesses and supplier side businesses were supposed to put hard barriers in place to ensure that personal data couldn't be transferred from one to the other.

In this case, SSEN the DNO (who are a different company to SSE/OVO the supplier) are not supposed to be able to access any supplier personal data from any other SSE supplier side company. If they are able to do this then that's a breach of the data protection regs I believe.

I'm not sure, but I definitely get Northern Powergrid text messages relating to the village that my rental is in. I don't get any for where I live.

[smegal]

Got one last week on a several hour power cut.

It seems there is some government project sending us address based (registered mobile address) txt messages for floods, power cuts or other catastrophe. There seems to be an automatic opt in, and you can opt out if you know how to do it.

I assume it's based on energy accounts.

I get electricity service notifications for my rentsl house, but not main home (my wife is the main person on the home energy account).

I think its more than that as I also had an auto opt in txt from the Environment Agency about future flood warnings.

I knew I had read something about it,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62549122

And here,
https://www.gov.uk/alerts/when-you-get-an-alert

The message you've screenshotted is from the DNO, not the government. This could be two separate issues.

[nowty]

I assume it's based on energy accounts.

I get electricity service notifications for my rentsl house, but not main home (my wife is the main person on the home energy account).

I think its more than that as I also had an auto opt in txt from the Environment Agency about future flood warnings.

I knew I had read something about it,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62549122

And here,
https://www.gov.uk/alerts/when-you-get-an-alert

The message you've screenshotted is from the DNO, not the government. This could be two separate issues.

They could be but I also got one from Floodline last month, both of these I have not signed up to, but they still came to me automatically. If we might get scheduled power cuts, don't you think the same service might be used ?, its just that Gus and I have actually had a power cut, so maybe we got the first taste of this system. Otherwise, how else are we going to know when our scheduled power outage slot is going to be, if it comes to that.

Its a moot point whether the DNO is a government agency or not, certainly its an essential service.

[Tinbum]

I'm not sure, but I definitely get Northern Powergrid text messages relating to the village that my rental is in. I don't get any for where I live.

I also get them for a rented out property and my own from NPG and have done for a few years. The problem is I never know where it's for as our home supply could be off and I wouldn't have a clue it was. They should put the location on the texts.

I think i did sign up for them but not sure how you deregister.