:00:00. > :00:15.Hello from Petersfield, and welcome to Inside Out. Tonight it is all
:00:16. > :00:20.about energy. Power cuts at Christmas as the energy companies
:00:21. > :00:25.are called to account. Will we face cuts like this in the future? With
:00:26. > :00:30.fuel bills rising, we investigate the world of energy theft which
:00:31. > :00:39.could be costing honest households ?30 a year. And how to heat your
:00:40. > :00:44.home for ?3 a month. I am off to the New Forest to meet an energy
:00:45. > :01:07.conscious couple. I am Jon Cuthill and this is Inside Out. First
:01:08. > :01:10.tonight, let's talk power cuts. This winter 130,000 homes and businesses
:01:11. > :01:17.in the south have been affected. This area was pretty badly hit and
:01:18. > :01:27.has left customers angry. The government are asking questions
:01:28. > :01:34.about what went wrong. Christmas, the season of goodwill and a time
:01:35. > :01:39.for twinkly lights and cooking turkeys. To get the party started
:01:40. > :01:47.you need electricity and without it, Christmas is not fun. As the big day
:01:48. > :01:55.approached, big storms battered the South. Power cuts affected thousands
:01:56. > :02:02.of homes and businesses. Jeff and. From Hampshire went without mains
:02:03. > :02:08.power for five days. They had a back`up generator but that failed as
:02:09. > :02:16.well. You have got no TV, no computer, the hand`held telephones
:02:17. > :02:21.do not work. The mobile masts are out because that has no electricity.
:02:22. > :02:29.We had a landline telephone so we did have contact but if we did not,
:02:30. > :02:32.we would have been stuck. Relatives from Australia were over for
:02:33. > :02:40.Christmas and when the house got cold and damp, this woman got ill
:02:41. > :02:44.and went to hospital. I nearly cried actually. Each day I thought it
:02:45. > :02:51.would get better at it did not. It's just got colder. Of course, when it
:02:52. > :02:56.comes to controlling the elements there is not much one can do. During
:02:57. > :03:05.extreme weather, there are people we rely on to keep connected. Southern
:03:06. > :03:17.Electric are responsible for the lines across the South. This is one
:03:18. > :03:23.of the worst Decembers we have ever had. Flooding was causing problems,
:03:24. > :03:27.access to look at the faults was very difficult. At the heart of it
:03:28. > :03:33.we want to know that our customers know what is going on when the power
:03:34. > :03:36.is off. We want to give them good communication and that they have a
:03:37. > :03:44.good idea when the power should be back on. Good afternoon, thank you
:03:45. > :03:49.for calling Southern Electric. Some customers say that information given
:03:50. > :03:55.over the phone was confusing at best, and completely inaccurate at
:03:56. > :04:01.worst. When the power cuts hit Hampshire, I went to see how it was
:04:02. > :04:05.affecting people in this village. The day before Christmas Eve, the
:04:06. > :04:09.electricity suddenly went. We could not get any proper information. They
:04:10. > :04:14.said it was a technical fault but then we found out that the line went
:04:15. > :04:19.down. After a huge amount of boning, somebody eventually told us that it
:04:20. > :04:28.was impossible to get the power lines up for a long time so at least
:04:29. > :04:32.we could plan. We had a generator for ten hours but then it ran out of
:04:33. > :04:39.fuel. We had another one arrived from York. Again, we had another ten
:04:40. > :04:45.hours of electricity and then that ran out of fuel. And patience was
:04:46. > :04:51.running thin? Yes. I understand it was a power cut but they should tell
:04:52. > :04:55.us the truth. At this nursing home in Hampshire, most of the residents
:04:56. > :05:01.had to stay in bed to stay warm because of the power cuts. Southern
:05:02. > :05:10.Electric sent a generator on Christmas Day, but no engineer to
:05:11. > :05:15.hook it up. This was one of the stormiest Decembers we ever had. We
:05:16. > :05:21.had as many staff as we could working over the period. We had men
:05:22. > :05:26.in the field getting everything they could to get the power back on.
:05:27. > :05:35.Sometimes things go wrong and we have to learn from it so we can
:05:36. > :05:39.improve the service. The `` the company is being accused of giving
:05:40. > :05:44.too many employees leave. Those on duty insist they were working flat
:05:45. > :05:49.out to restore power. I did 20 hours on Christmas Day. What did you have
:05:50. > :05:57.for Christmas lunch? Christmas lunch? I think I had a pot noodle
:05:58. > :06:11.for my dinner. I went back to work in the afternoon. The crisis at
:06:12. > :06:14.Christmas has called into question how electricity generated at power
:06:15. > :06:16.stations gets to our homes. High voltage