HUNDREDS of homes and businesses in Wellington were again left without power on Thursday (July 30) for the second time in just over a fortnight.

A fault on overhead high voltage electricity lines was initially blamed for the outage, which hit the Tonedale area shortly before 2 pm.

But, National Grid Electricity Generation (NGED) later said the fault lay with underground cables.

Nearly 600 properties were cut off, and this time the outage also spread to the Lowmoor Business Park, off Milverton Road.

NGED said more than 450 premises were reconnected by 3 pm and it was anticipated power to the rest would be restored by about 5.30 pm.

A NGED spokesperson said: “We are getting this sorted as a priority.

“Our engineers are working to get electricity back on as quickly as possible.

“We are sorry for the disruption.”

The spokesperson said a ‘best estimate’ was given for when power would be back on, based on what was known at the time.

However, they said: “Times might change if we face unexpected challenges getting to the fault.

“These times show when the last person in the area will have power back - most will be reconnected before this.”