Sheffield residents report flickering lights as Storm Deirdre brings freezing rain

People in the city taken to social media to share their problems with intermittent electricity supply as a result of the bad weather.

One resident in Upperthorpe said her lights had been flickering all day and at one point her television turned itself off.

The phenomenon takes place as ice forms on overhead cables which then bang into each other, causing interruptions to power.

Northern Powergrid earlier said they were prepared should snow, gales and freezing temperatures affect the region.

They said similar problems had been reported in Leeds and Huddersfield and passed on to the National Grid.

Rod Gardner, Northern Powergrid's head of network operations, said they were monitoring the weather '˜very closely'.

He said: 'We've already taken action to ensure that we have extra frontline teams available and our 4x4s and specialist access vehicles ready so we can restore power and carry out repairs if there is any disruption or damage to our network as a result of the winds and wintery conditions.

'We're also ready with additional staff at our local 24-hour control, dispatch and contact centre, which can be reached by calling the 105, as well as teams in other locations around our business who will be ready to offer our customers support and advice. 

'Our website, northernpowergrid.com, has an easy-to-use power cut map and reporting service which our customers can use to report a power cut and get updates about what we're doing to get their lights back on.

'We're encouraging customers to take a few minutes to add 105 and bookmark our website on their mobile phones so they are ready to use our services if they need to.  They may also want to watch our videos, which will help them know exactly what to do if they do have a power cut.'