Nearly 100 households were without power last night after an electric fault caused a blackout for several hours.

Workmen were called out to the junction of Marlborough Road and Norfolk Road, in Colliers Wood, which were described as “pitch black” between 6pm yesterday and 3am today.

Lizzie Dearden, who lives in Wilton Road, said: “The workmen told me they would be here all night because a mains cable had exploded.

“It was very annoying for some people who would be kept up half the night by the noise, and others who obviously didn’t have any electricity.”

A spokesman for UK Power Networks, London’s electricity operator, said the blackout was caused by an incident but by a fault discovered by a routine inspection by an engineer.

He said: “At 5.40pm yesterday, as part of a routine inspection, a UK Power Networks engineer discovered that a piece of equipment on the underground electricity distribution network in the Norfolk Road area of Colliers Wood had faulted.

“In order to carry out repairs as quickly and as safely as possible, supplies to 82 customers were isolated at 6pm.

“Our engineers continued working through the night and into the early hours of today, with power restored to 52 customers at 9pm and the remaining 30 at 2.55am.

“We appreciate how difficult it can be to lose power and would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident.”

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