Backup Power

Backup Power for UK Homes: Power Cuts, Generators, Batteries and the Priority Services Register

Most British homes go for years without a power cut long enough to notice, and then one storm can change that overnight. Backup power means having a way to keep the essentials running when the network cannot: a charged power station for phones and lighting, a generator for the fridge and heating controls, or a solar battery that carries the house through on stored electricity. The scale of what a home needs is modest. For backup of basic needs, lighting, a fridge and communication, a 5 kW to 6 kW generator is generally sufficient¹, and the typical newer property has a 100A supply to work within².

What backup power does not mean is independence from the network. Every option on this page either stores electricity that came from the grid, burns fuel that has to be bought and stored, or waits for the sun. The network operator remains responsible for restoring your supply, and no operator will provide an individual household with a generator in a national power emergency³. Backup buys time and comfort during a cut; it does not replace the wires.

This page sets out the whole picture: who to call when the power goes off, what compensation the rules guarantee for long cuts, the free Priority Services Register for households that depend on electricity, and the equipment options with their costs, warranties and safety limits, across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

What backup power actually means for a British home

Backup power is any arrangement that keeps electricity flowing to the things a household cannot do without when the mains supply stops. In practice that splits into three tiers. The first is keeping small devices alive: phones, laptops, lighting, a broadband router. The second is keeping appliances running: a fridge or freezer, heating controls, a microwave. The third is whole-house continuity, which in the UK almost always means a standby generator or a home battery wired in by an installer.

The size of the job is set by the house itself. Newer properties typically have a 100A supply², which is far more power than any backup arrangement needs to replicate, because no household backs up everything at once. The sensible question is not "what runs my whole house" but "what do I actually need". For basic needs, lighting, a fridge and communication, a 5 kW to 6 kW generator is sufficient¹. Everything beyond that is comfort rather than necessity.

One limit deserves stating plainly. Backup power is a bridge, not an island. A portable power station runs flat. A generator needs fuel that must be bought, stored safely and replenished. A solar battery needs sun or grid power to refill. And in a national emergency, the network operators have said clearly that they "cannot provide individual generators in the event of a national power emergency"³. Households that depend on mains-powered medical equipment therefore need a plan that does not assume the network will help them individually, and the Priority Services Register, covered below, is part of that plan.

For most homes the realistic goal is hours of continuity for the essentials, not days of independence for everything. The sections that follow set out what the rules entitle you to, what support exists for free, and what the equipment costs.

Power cut? Call 105

The single most useful fact on this page is also the simplest: 105 is the free, dedicated power cut emergency number for England, Scotland and Wales⁴. It is free to call⁵, available 24 hours a day⁵, and it puts you through to your local network operator, the company that owns the wires, rather than your energy supplier, who only sells you the electricity. Many people waste valuable time in a cut calling their supplier, who cannot help.

The number exists to give "an easy-to-remember number to call that will put you through to the local people who can help during a power cut"¹⁰. Calling 105 reports the cut and gets you updates on restoration. If you want to check whether there is a power cut in your area before calling, our page on checking whether there is a power cut explains how.

Northern Ireland is different. The 105 service covers England, Scotland and Wales only; in Northern Ireland call 03457 643643⁴, and in the Republic of Ireland the number is 1850 372 999⁴. The same guidance appears in advice for care providers, who are told to direct people in Northern Ireland to 03457 643643¹¹. Our page on power cuts in Northern Ireland covers the arrangements there in full.

What the Guaranteed Standards pay out after extended outages

When a power cut lasts long enough, the rules require the network operator to pay you. These are the Guaranteed Standards of Performance, and they cover England, Scotland and Wales⁶. The headline figures are straightforward.

For an unplanned cut in normal weather, you get £100 for your home, or £195 for a business, if fewer than 5,000 properties were affected and your power was off for more than 12 hours, or if more than 5,000 properties were affected and your power was off for more than 24 hours⁶. After that first payment, you get an extra £45 for every additional 12-hour period without electricity⁶. The maximum is £400 where the cut affects 5,000 or more properties⁶.

The examples Ofgem gives show how the £45 additions build up. A cut lasting more than 12 hours that is fixed within 36 hours brings 2 additional £45 payments, adding up to £90; a cut lasting more than 24 hours that is interrupted for 72 hours brings 4 additional £45 payments, adding up to £180⁷. For repeated cuts, you can get an extra £100 if your power has gone off more than 4 times between 1 April and 31 March the following year, with each cut lasting at least 3 hours⁶. For that repeated-cuts payment you must make a claim with your local network operator, who decides whether you get it⁷.

There are exclusions. No payment is due for blackouts caused by a national power shortage, damage to your own electrical equipment or appliances, or a low supply after a power cut⁶. The amounts are reviewed and updated each year based on inflation⁶. One independent source gives the repeated-cuts payment as £95 rather than £100¹⁵; the official Ofgem figure is £100, and that is the one to rely on.

Two things are worth knowing about how these standards work in practice. Ofgem's own consumer research found that participants had low awareness of the Guaranteed Standards of Performance, and that service failings related to loss of supply were typically seen as the most severe, with widespread agreement that compensation matters when standards are missed¹⁶. In other words, most households entitled to these payments never claim them. Our page on power cut compensation and the Guaranteed Standards goes through the detail, and there is separate guidance for compensation in Northern Ireland.

Restoration deadlines: 12 hours in normal weather, 24 or 48 in storms

The compensation rules sit on top of restoration deadlines: the time the network operator is allowed to take before the payments start. In normal weather, if your electricity supply fails because of a problem in the network, the operator must restore it within 12 hours⁷. That 12-hour deadline is the reason the standard £100 payment for smaller cuts begins at 12 hours: it is the payment for a missed deadline.

Severe weather stretches the deadlines, because storms bring multiple faults at once and repairs are slower and more dangerous. The deadlines are set by storm category:

• Normal weather: restoration within 12 hours⁷
• Severe storm category 1: restoration within 24 hours⁶
• Severe storm category 2: restoration within 48 hours⁶

The storm payments follow the same logic. For a category 1 storm, you get £90 if the power was off for 24 hours¹³. For storm category 2, you can get £90 for the first 48 hours and an extra £45 for every 6 hours after that⁷, and Citizens Advice gives the storm maximum as £2,235¹³. National Grid, one of the network operators, describes the same structure: 12 hours in normal conditions, and in more extreme weather events the permitted restoration time varies, with 48 hours for a category 2 storm¹⁸.

What this means for a household planning backup is that the deadlines tell you how long you might plausibly be off. A normal-weather fault is measured in hours, and the operator is on the clock from the moment it happens. A named storm can legitimately run to 24 or 48 hours before compensation even begins, and in a major event, restoration in remoter areas can take longer still. Equipment that covers a household for 12 to 48 hours of essentials covers the great majority of cuts the rules anticipate. Our page on keeping heating running in a power cut deals with the hardest part of that window in winter.

Free extra help on the Priority Services Register for electricity-reliant households

The Priority Services Register is a free service provided by utility suppliers and network operators¹⁹. It exists for households that need extra help when the power or water goes off: people who use medical equipment reliant on electricity or water²¹, older people, those with disabilities, chronic illness or communication needs. Membership costs nothing²⁰, and the support is provided "free of charge to vulnerable consumers who have been added to the Priority Services Register"²².

What membership provides is practical:

• Advanced notice of planned power cuts²⁰
• An identification and password scheme for home visits²³
• Regular personal meter readings, which can stop large backlog bills building up²⁰
• Accessible information and communication support²⁰
• Extra help during cuts, including battery packs so that phones or medical equipment can still be charged⁷
• A free personalised power cut plan, tailored to your needs, routines and communication preferences²³

Registration is deliberately easy. You can sign up online, over the phone, or by post using a leaflet available in alternative languages, large print and easy read²³. You can register on behalf of a family member, friend or someone you care for²³. Being registered does not change who you pay your energy bill to, and your details are shared with your energy supplier and your local gas and water networks so the support follows you across utilities²³. The independent site www.thepsr.co.uk also takes applications²⁶, though official guidance says to contact all your utility suppliers directly¹⁹.

Two limits matter. First, membership does not mean faster reconnection: network operators "work hard to restore power to affected areas but can't prioritise individual households"²³. Second, the register is support, not backup power. The battery packs operators hand out keep a phone or a piece of medical equipment charged; they do not run a household. Households that depend on mains-powered medical equipment should also check with their care provider that the "mains power backup for all critical equipment" is in place¹¹. Our pages on the Priority Services Register, eligibility and help during a cut if you rely on medical equipment cover all of this in depth.

Portable power stations and generators: what they run and what they cost

A portable power station is a large rechargeable battery with mains-style sockets and USB ports, designed to be carried from room to room and used indoors. It runs whatever its stored capacity and output rating allow: phones, laptops, lighting, a router, and short bursts of higher-draw appliances depending on the model. It is silent, needs no fuel, and produces no fumes, which is why it is the default indoor option during a cut. Our page on portable power stations explains how they work in detail.

A portable fuel generator is the other common route. Prices for portable generators start at around £160 but can go up to £2,000 or more⁸. A generator will run a fridge, lighting and heating controls for as long as it has fuel, but it must be run outdoors because of carbon monoxide, and connecting one to a house supply is a job for a qualified person with the right switchgear, covered on our pages about connecting a generator to a house and generator safety.

The honest division of labour between the two is time versus power. A power station is limited by its stored energy: once the battery is flat, it needs the grid, a car socket or solar panels to refill. A generator is limited by fuel: it will run for as long as you can feed it, but never indoors. For a cut measured in hours, a power station covers most households' real needs. For a cut measured in days, in a storm, a generator is the only option that keeps going, and even then it depends on fuel supplies.

One point that catches out buyers of home batteries deserves its own warning. If you are looking to protect against power cuts with a home battery, not all systems are suitable: ask your installer whether your battery will work in a power outage, and for how long²⁷. Many solar battery installations are configured to export and save money, not to run the house when the grid goes down. Our page on home battery vs portable power station sets out the difference.

Choosing between solar battery storage and a fuel generator

The choice between a fuel generator and a solar-with-battery system is really a choice about what the household wants backup power for, and what it wants afterwards.

A fuel generator is pure backup. It sits idle almost all year, costs from around £160 at the small end⁸, and does one thing: make electricity from fuel during a cut. It suits households that face rare but potentially long outages, especially rural properties on overhead lines where storm damage takes longest to repair. Its dependencies are fuel and maintenance: petrol, diesel or LPG must be bought and stored within safety rules, and a generator that has sat unused for two years may not start when needed. Our pages on storing fuel at home and maintaining and testing backup equipment deal with both.

A solar array with battery storage is an everyday system that happens to provide backup. Solar Energy UK suggests that combining rooftop solar with a battery could enable 80% of a household's annual electricity to be low carbon²⁸, and the government's Building for 2050 study of low-carbon homes found that householder use of solar-generated electricity is maximised by battery storage²⁹. The battery earns its cost every day of the year by shifting solar power to the evening, and in a cut, if the system is configured for it, it can run essential circuits. The catch is the one above: not all systems work in an outage²⁷, and a battery sized for daily solar cycling may not carry a whole house through a long winter evening.

For a household whose main aim is energy independence, the solar-and-battery route does two jobs at once. For a household whose only concern is the odd storm, a small generator or a portable power station is the cheaper answer. Our page on standby generator vs home battery compares them in full.

Choosing a portable power station: capacity, ports and recharging

Three specifications determine what a portable power station can actually do for a household.

Capacity, measured in watt-hours, sets how long it runs things. A small unit keeps phones and a router alive for an evening; a large one can run a fridge overnight. The right size depends entirely on what a household decides it cannot do without, which is why our page on essential loads and backup circuits is worth reading before any purchase, and our page on what size portable power station you need works through the arithmetic.

Output ports set what can be plugged in at once. The average UK household already has many rechargeable items containing lithium-ion batteries, such as laptops, mobile phones, e-scooters, e-cigarettes and mobility vehicles³⁰. Keeping those charged is the core job, so USB ports and at least one mains-style socket matter more than raw power for most buyers. Households wanting to run a microwave or a kettle element need to check the unit's continuous output rating against the appliance, as our page on running a microwave from a power station explains.

Recharging sets how quickly the unit is ready again. Options are the mains socket, a car socket while driving, and solar panels. Solar recharging is the only method that works during a cut that outlasts the battery, and it is the method that turns a power station from a stored lump of grid electricity into something closer to genuine independence. Our page on charging a portable power station from solar panels covers it, and the page on portable power station batteries explains the battery chemistries behind the cycle-life figures.

One safety note applies to all of them. Lithium-ion batteries, the kind in power stations and in the devices they charge, are safe in normal use but deserve basic care: not damaged, not left on charge unattended for long periods, and disposed of properly if they swell. North Wales Fire and Rescue Service guidance on lithium-ion batteries at home is the reference point³⁰, and our page on lithium battery safety covers the fire risk, recalls and disposal.

UK suppliers and their product lines

The UK market divides into three kinds of product: portable power stations, portable fuel generators, and standby generators. The brands below are those with confirmed UK availability and published specifications; the list describes what each offers and ranks nothing.

EcoFlow sells portable power stations and solar charging kit in the UK. Its DELTA 2 Solar Generator (PV220W) package combines a power station with a 220W solar panel, and the maker states it includes smart features like WiFi and Bluetooth monitoring and a five-year warranty¹. Our page on EcoFlow covers the range.

Honda is known for small, quiet petrol inverter generators. The EU2200i Companion portable generator is specified at 57 dB(A) at rated load, and as low as 48 dB(A) at quarter load¹, which puts it among the quieter options for outdoor use near a home. See Honda generators for home backup.

Hyundai Power Products sells larger diesel generators for home backup. The DHY8000SELR diesel generator has a running output of about 5.8 kW, or 7.25 kVA standby power¹, comfortably above the 5 kW to 6 kW that basic home backup requires¹, with a noise level of approximately 70 dB at 7 m¹. See Hyundai Power Products generators in the UK.

Enphase supplies home batteries through UK installers²⁷. Its AC Battery is available via UK installers²⁷, making it an everyday solar-storage product rather than emergency kit, with the backup-capability caveat above.

Other brands sold in the UK include Jackery, BLUETTI, Anker SOLIX, Victron and Eaton, each with dedicated pages on this site. The comparison pages, such as EcoFlow vs BLUETTI and Jackery vs Anker SOLIX, set the ranges side by side.

Warranties and availability: what to check before buying

The warranty is where a backup purchase is won or lost, because the equipment sits idle for months and is expected to work instantly when needed.

For portable power stations, warranty terms vary by brand: EcoFlow, for example, states a five-year warranty on its DELTA 2 Solar Generator (PV220W)¹. Check what the warranty covers, since battery degradation is treated differently from component failure by different makers, and check the conditions: warranties are commonly voided by use outside the stated temperature range or by opening the unit.

For home batteries, availability is through UK installers rather than off the shelf²⁷, which means the installer's own workmanship guarantee matters as much as the maker's warranty. It also means the backup question must be asked before installation: whether the system works in an outage, and for how long²⁷.

For generators, the checks are practical rather than paper-based. Advice for care providers applies to any household: check that an existing backup generator "meets the power needs and connections you might have to support in an emergency"¹¹, and check the mains power backup for all critical equipment¹¹. A generator that has not been run for a year, with stale fuel in the carburettor, is a common discovery at the worst possible moment, which is why our page on maintaining and testing backup power equipment recommends periodic test runs.

Where a generator is to feed the house wiring rather than appliances plugged in outdoors, a changeover switch installed by a qualified person is the requirement, and the network operator may need to be told about the generator. Our pages on transfer switches and the rules and notifying the network operator cover both points.

Backup power's role in cutting your reliance on the grid

Backup power sits at the practical end of energy independence. A household with a charged power station, or a solar battery configured for outages, is not self-sufficient, but it is no longer helpless: a cut becomes an inconvenience rather than an emergency, and the compensation clock, the 12-hour deadline in normal weather, becomes something the household can wait out comfortably rather than endure.

The direction of travel favours households. The Climate Change Committee notes that at household level, further innovation in home battery technology, vehicle-to-everything (V2X), and solar can provide households with additional backup options during power outages³¹. A car battery that can run the house, and a roof that refills it, are more complete forms of independence than any stored fuel. Our page on backup power and energy independence develops this.

The dependencies that remain deserve honesty. A power station depends on the grid to refill, unless paired with solar. A generator depends on fuel bought from a supply chain that a big storm disrupts too. A solar battery depends on weather, on its installer, and on a manufacturer's warranty. None of these removes the household's reliance on the network operator to restore supply, and the Priority Services Register, the 105 number and the compensation standards remain part of the picture however much kit a household owns.

Support also differs by nation. In Northern Ireland, NI Energy Advice offers independent and impartial energy advice to domestic householders, plus referrals to energy grants and other sources of help³², and the Northern Ireland Energy Advice Service can be reached on 0800 111 4455, open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday³³. The compensation standards described above cover England, Scotland and Wales⁶, with separate arrangements in Northern Ireland. Whatever the nation, the combination is the same: know the number, know your rights, register if you depend on electricity, and own enough backup to cover the hours the rules say a cut can last.