A loss of electricity supply is one of the most common emergency-adjacent contacts you'll handle. Customers are often frustrated, sometimes frightened, and almost always convinced that Good Egg Energy is responsible. This guide helps you quickly work out what's actually going on, explain it clearly, and get the customer the right help.
The most important distinction: supplier vs. network
This is the thing that trips up new agents most often — and it's the key to handling these calls well.
Good Egg Energy supplies your electricity — we're responsible for your tariff, your billing, and your account. But the physical infrastructure that delivers electricity to your home — the cables, substations, and pylons — is owned and operated by your local Distribution Network Operator (DNO). If the power goes out, it's almost always a network issue, not a supplier issue. That means the DNO is the right organisation to contact, not us.
Explaining this clearly, without making the customer feel like they're being passed off, is one of the more important communication skills in this job.
Step 1: establish what's happening
Before you can help, you need to understand the situation. Ask:
- Is the outage affecting the whole property, or just some circuits?
- Have any neighbours been affected — is it just their home or the wider street/area?
- Has anything happened recently that might have caused it — work on the street, a storm, a tripped fuse?
- Is the customer's electricity meter showing anything unusual?
The answers will help you narrow down the cause quickly.
Possible causes and next steps
Tripped fuse or consumer unit
If only part of the property is affected, the issue is likely internal. Ask the customer to check their fuse box (consumer unit) — if a switch has tripped to the off position, they can try resetting it. If it trips again immediately, there may be a faulty appliance on that circuit. They should unplug everything on the affected circuit before trying again, and call a qualified electrician if the problem persists.
Prepayment meter out of credit
If the customer has a prepayment meter, check whether they've run out of credit. Walk them through activating emergency credit if available, and refer to Prepayment meter emergencies for full guidance.
Wider area outage
If neighbours are also affected, it's a network issue. Direct the customer to contact their DNO. You can help them find the right number using the DNO finder — customers can also call 105, the free national power cut helpline, which will route them to their local network operator automatically.
Isolated to the customer's property with no obvious cause
If the outage is limited to the customer's property but there's no tripped fuse and it's not a prepayment issue, it may be a fault on the service cable connecting their property to the network. This is still a DNO responsibility — direct them to call 105.
Directing customers to their DNO
When a customer needs to contact their DNO, be warm and practical about it — don't just say "it's not us" and leave them to figure it out.
"The power supply to your home is managed by your local network operator rather than us — they're the ones who can actually get an engineer to you. The quickest way to reach them is to call 105, which is free and available 24 hours. They'll pick up, take your details, and get someone out to investigate. I'll also flag your account on our side so we're aware of what's happening."
Vulnerable customers and loss of supply
A power outage is significantly more serious for some customers than others. If the customer is on the PSR, has a medical dependency on electricity, has young children, or is elderly and living alone — treat this as a priority.
- Make sure they've called 105 or their DNO directly
- Let them know that as a PSR customer they are prioritised by the network operator for restoration and welfare checks
- If they have medical equipment that requires power, advise them to mention this explicitly when they call the DNO
- Log the vulnerability concern on the account and flag for follow-up
After the call
Log the contact in Kraken with the details of what the customer reported, what advice you gave, and whether they were directed to the DNO or resolved the issue themselves. If the outage is part of a wider incident affecting multiple Good Egg Energy customers in an area, your team leader may have additional guidance — check in with them if you're getting several similar calls in a short period.
