RESIDENTS who were left without electricity for two days after a major power outage in Boscombe will be compensated.

Electricity company SSE has told the Daily Echo it will be writing to around 300 of its customers affected by Friday’s incident, which saw residents in Hamilton Road, Walpole Road, and St Clements Gardens evacuated from their homes.

SSE is currently investigating the cause behind an equipment failure at a high voltage substation, which caused residents’ appliances to blow and sparked several fires.

The power supply was finally restored to all but eight properties by 4pm on Sunday after SSE engineers carried out repairs and safety checks.

A spokesperson for the company said: “We will be proactively writing to all those affected by the incident at the weekend to make the necessary arrangements for our customers to receive the Guaranteed Standard payments they are entitled to for the loss of supply they experienced, as well as a suitable goodwill payment as way of apology for the inconvenience caused.

“We will also look to address any other concerns our customers have as a result of the incident, and we would again like to take the opportunity to thank our customers for their continued patience whilst we safely restored power to their homes.”

Ofgem, the industry regulator, sets the guaranteed standards. If SSE fails to meet these standards, customers are entitled to receive a payment, either directly from SSE or through their electricity supplier. If electricity supply fails during normal weather conditions due to a problem on SSE’s distribution system, and it is not restored within 12 hours, customers can expect to receive £75, plus £35 for each additional 12 hours they are without supply.

Head of region Jo Niven has apologised to everyone affected by Friday’s incident.

Bournemouth council says residents of Bethany House, a property for independent senior living affected by the power cut, have returned home, but the call system is not working.

Temporary careline alarms and smoke alarms have been arranged until repairs are made.