How prepared do you feel for a major power outage? Have your say
Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After the poll closes, we'll publish and analyse the results each Friday, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.
Millions of people in Spain and Portugal were affected by a huge power outage this week.
The blackout brought airports and rail networks in the two countries to a standstill, and left homes without power and many commuters no choice but to sleep in transport hubs.
The fallout from the power cuts is well underway, as authorities there try to establish what caused the network to fail so drastically.
There are also concerns that such a failure could occur in the UK, with the government here trying to reassure the public that the infrastructure is set up to prevent such an outcome.
Asked about fears of a similar event in the UK, home secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News: 'We've been looking, as part of wider security reviews across the country, how we deal with both resilience and also different kinds of challenges and threats."
Last month, a power outage caused a substation fire that brought operations at Heathrow Airport outside London to a standstill, disrupting more than 270,000 passenger journeys in the process.
In January, the UK's power grid operator, the National Energy System Operator (Neso), called for electricity providers to boost their output to avoid the risk of blackouts. It was concerned about the lack of spare capacity in the grid from 4pm until 7pm on 8 January.
In August 2019, one of the UK's biggest blackouts left more than one million homes without power and caused disruption across rail networks and at airports.
The blackout, affecting England, Scotland and Wales and lasting 45 minutes, happened after outages at the gas-fired Little Barford plant and the Hornsea offshore wind farm.
According to the government, the UK has a "resilient electricity system" and most power cuts don't last for long, although widespread regional outages lasting several days can happen, but are "unlikely" nationally.
It advises people to keep a battery-operated torch and radio at home with spare batteries in the event of a power cut, and to have some bottled water or food that doesn't need cooking in their household. The number to use to report a power cut in England, Scotland and Wales is 105.
But do you think you are ready if there is a major power cut in the UK? Let us know in the polls below:Come back on Friday to read the results and analysis via the link below.
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