A shopkeeper has lost several thousand pounds worth of frozen food during a power cut lasting more than 21 hours. But under Northern Ireland Electricity’s (NIE) rules, he is not entitled to compensation because power was restored just short of the 24-hour deadline.

An NIE spokesman said the power company worked to standards set by the regulator and one of the rules was that electricity had to be restored within 24 hours. NIE was not required to compensate customers for shorter power cuts but the company was in the process of talking to individual customers who had lost money.

The fault had proved tricky to locate and it had been impossible at the time to estimate when power was likely to be restored, she said.

Around 800 customers were affected when electricity supplies were interrupted in the Derrylin and Kinawley areas last Wednesday at 10.50pm.

Most had their power restored within two or three hours, but 67 customers were cut off until the following evening.

Store owner Ted Keenan said he had received a poor response from NIE throughout the period the power was shut off. NIE staff told him they were doing their best to reconnect the power but gave no estimate of how long it would take, he said.

It would have been better if they had warned him that the power cut could last for a while and advised him to hire a generator in the meantime, Mr Keenan said.

“I may as well have had the shop closed that day. There were no tills, no computers, the post office had to be closed down, the petrol pumps were closed,” he said.

Pictured is Kathleen Keenan of Keenan’s VG shop at Macken, who lost several thousand pounds worth of frozen and fresh foods when their electricity supply was off for 21 hours.