AN electricity fault caused hundreds of homes to lose power, some for almost two days.

About 300 homes around Kilworth Avenue, York Road and Southchurch Road, Southend, suffered a power cut following a fault on the underground electricity network at about 2.45pm on Monday.

Most regained power in the early hours of Tuesday, but around 30 were still having problems until early yesterday.

EDF Energy, which is responsible for providing power to the homes in the area, has apologised for the problem and said some customers would be eligible for compensation.

Simon Wright, 39, of Kilworth Avenue, was without electricity for nearly two days.

He said: "If it hadn't been so frustrating, it would have been funny.

"We kept getting told it would be four hours, then another four hours, and then eight hours. Why didn't they just admit they didn't know what the problem was?

"We've been told if we want to claim any more for the food and everything we've lost, we've got to claim it on our home insurance.

"We think we lost about a few hundred pounds worth of food, but our excess on the insurance is £200."

Rebecca Hopkinson, spokeswoman for EDF, apologised to customers.

She said in a statement: "We would like to offer our sincere apologies to customers and reassure them engineers worked to restore power as quickly as possible.

"EDF Energy Networks engineers worked through the night and managed to restore the majority of customers by 1.53am on Tuesday.

"However, due to the complex nature of the fault, 30 customers remained off supply. The restoration was made at 4.51am on Wednesday.

"If it takes us more than 18 hours to restore power, customers can claim a guaranteed standard payment of £50 for a residential customer, or £100 for business customers.

"A further payment of £25 is paid for every period of 12 hours following the initial 18 hours off supply."