Winter ready | Northern Gas Networks

What you can do

Keep the National Gas Emergency Service number – 0800 111 999* – handy and ring it immediately if you smell gas or suspect a deadly carbon monoxide leak.

Keep the number of your gas boiler service contract provider, gas supplier (the company name at the top of your gas bill), or contact details for a Gas Safe Registered engineer to hand in case your gas boiler breaks down or shows an error message.

Please don’t call the National Gas Emergency Service unless you have a gas emergency – we can’t help and you could be blocking the line for customers that need urgent help. For non-urgent enquiries our Customer Care Team are here to help. Call them on 0800 040 7766 or email customercare@northerngas.co.uk.

Get your gas appliances serviced by a Gas Safe Registered engineer. To find an engineer visit the gas safe register website or ring 0800 408 5500.

Your pipes

If the condensate pipe from your boiler freezes this winter, follow this simple advice to thaw it:

- To thaw frozen boiler pipes, hold a hot water bottle or heat wrap around the pipe

- Alternatively, pour hot, NOT boiling, water over the frozen end of the pipe

- If the boiler fires up, it’s fixed. If it doesn’t, pour hot water on the pipe again. If your pipes are still frozen, call your supplier.

#BeWinterReady

Join the Priority Services Register. You may eligible for help from your energy company if you have extra communication, access or safety needs. This can include elderly people, those with a chronic illness, people with mental health issues or dementia and those born Deaf.

Buy an audible Carbon Monoxide alarm.

Know the signs and symptoms of carbon monoxide.

Call 105 if you have a power cut.

Keep a torch handy in case of power cuts.

Keep an eye on the weather forecast and if you have a loss of supply or a power cut, check on your neighbours.

We’re fully prepared for the challenging weather conditions that the winter brings.

We continue to improve the resilience of our network and ensure customers are looked after when the gas goes off.

Winter weather strategy

Our Severe Weather Guidance document sets out our winter weather strategy, and we have a dedicated Winter Incident Controller, Winter Incident Coordinator and Manager.

Robust contingency plans

We have robust contingency plans to ensure that our entire critical supply infrastructure is safe and in good condition. All trees on our site boundaries were inspected and felled before the winter to avoid storm damage.

Extra operational staff

We’ve recruited additional staff ready to deal with any gas network issues including Operational Response Engineers and extra Customer Contact Centre staff.

Extra maintenance staff

We’ve also employed extra maintenance staff to carry out site checks during evenings and weekends.

Multi-terrain vehicles

As well as access to a pool of 4×4 and multi-terrain vehicles, all of our operational vehicles have winter tyres, should we need to get to remote, snowbound locations.

Helicopters on standby

We use helicopters to check our network of high pressure pipelines to pinpoint any areas that might need action and complete regular surveys of vulnerable bridge and river crossings.

Flood protection

We’ve installed flood protection to protect our key assets and we’re remotely monitoring all of our critical supply equipment.

Mutual aid agreements

We also have mutual aid agreements with neighbouring distribution networks, so we can help each other out if we encounter severe weather.

Customer Care Team

0800 040 7766

Connections Team