EDF Energy has launched a new text messaging service to keep customers updated during a power failure.

Any customer who contacts EDF to report power cut can opt to provide their mobile phone number to receive text updates about the incident.

The text service has been successfully tested in the South East and London, when customers received an estimated time when their power was likely to be restored and confirmation when it was back on.

Now the initiative has been expanded to offer more detailed updates in the form of six to 11 text messages per incident. Customers will be texted when engineers are on their way to investigate the problem, when they are working on site, when the problem has been located and more. The messages will be sent out manually, according to computer records which are constantly updated by engineers on site.