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One of Walkley ward councillor Tom Hunt’s constituents who has a lung condition described how she suffered a frightening night as she was unable to use her oxygen equipment.

Others had to throw away food or faced disruption working from home.

Northern Powergrid have brought in four huge portable generators to get power restored for around 2,000 households and businesses after a fire at an electricity sub-station hit main power cables serving Upperthorpe, Lower Walkley and Langsett on Friday night (August 5).

Engineers are working on repairs and the company said some later power cuts were caused by people tampering with generators. They now have security patrols in place.

Christine Thurtle, aged 77, of Fox Road, Upperthorpe, has a lung condition and leukemia and relies on an oxygen supply and a bedside breathing monitor while she sleeps.

Without a power supply, she had to stay awake: “I was absolutely exhausted. I cannot go to sleep if neither of my machines is going. One of my machines makes me breathe while I am asleep.

“It’s the thought of you don’t know when it’s coming back.”

She does not have a mobile phone or internet access, so Northern Powergrid have now given her a phone that does not need an electricity supply.

Mrs Thurtle also had a bad tooth during the power cuts and could not contact the dentist so performed a DIY extraction.

Coun Hunt has taken up complaints from Mrs Thurtle and other constituents that the company needs to give people better information.

He said: “On Friday night the power goes off in this area. A lot of people might have already gone to bed. On Saturday they wake up and find it’s gone off for a long time.

“Once before we’d had a power cut and people thought ‘it’s happening again’. Since then people have had four to five more power cuts.

“Northern Powergrid have been very poor at communicating to residents in the area what’s happening. We’ve been getting texts to say the power has gone off and then back on.

“In between there is no information about multiple power cuts – what’s the problem, what permanent measures are going to be put in place to stop this happening long-term and what they are doing for people eligible for compensation.

“People have been left in the dark.”

Coun Hunt said he had been to the sub-station behind Upperthorpe Peace Garden where fire broke out, causing the blackouts: “I was chatting to the engineers working on something pretty major.

"They told me that was the cause of the initial incident that caused this.

“A high-voltage cable had blown and that caused a fire in another high-voltage cable underground and knocked that out.”

Four sub-stations in the area are affected, so generators were brought in. Coun Hunt said he told people via Facebook: “I got a lot of comments – ‘it’s the first I knew about this, we should have been told’.

“I heard about a lot of people who had to bin the contents of their freezer in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis when food prices are rising. It’s something nobody can afford.”

He said constituents who are working from home had to make last-minute arrangements to work.

“While some people have suffered material damage, everybody in the area is living with the stress and anxiety of not knowing if the power is going to go off, particularly people who have had it five or six times.

“I want them to learn the importance of communication with residents – not just ‘there is a fault’. Yes, we know, our lights have gone off.

“I want them to communicate with people when repairs will be done and if the power is going to be going off while they’re completing those works.

“I also want them to write to them about compensation they’re eligible for.”

He added: “What really concerns me is a number of people not connected to the internet and don’t have a mobile phone.

“They have been unable to get hold of anybody or go online to get information about what’s going on.

“I would like then to send a letter in the post to explain what happened, also what support is available for older people not online and to provide compensation details.

“I want a recognition that their response was pretty poor.”

Northern Powergrid said: “On Saturday 6 August there was a fault on our underground cable network which affected around 1,950 properties in the S6 area. Our teams successfully located the fault and took action to connect generators to restore supplies for our customers.

“Unfortunately the generators operating have failed on a number of occasions due to thieves stealing fuel and tampering with the generators.

“This has caused further disruption for those customers connected and we took action immediately get the generators working again.

“We have also placed security on site to patrol and protect the generators so we can help prevent any further disruption.

“We do understand how frustrating this is for our customers and we are urging the local community to be vigilant. If they spot any suspicious behaviour near the generators please call 105 immediately.

“Our teams remain on site and continue to work towards a permanent repair so we can reconnect those customers to our network as soon as possible.

“We would like to reassure customers that, in line with industry guaranteed standards, we’ll be proactively writing to those affected more than 12 hours to offer a payment to apologise and recognise the disruption.”