Furious residents have been complaining to an electricity supplier after their power kept failing.

About 200 homes in Westcliff were affected by a faulty transformer at a substation.

The transformer in Fairfax Drive failed at 11.32pm on Sunday and electricity was thought to have been restored an hour later by supplier EDF Energy.

However, residents were still suffering powercuts at 5.40pm yesterday and it was not known when they would be resolved.

Darren Attersley, who lives in Beedell Avenue, Westcliff, said his power had been coming on in two to three minute spurts.

He said: "It's not really good because I have a three-year-old son who doesn't like the dark. I have had to go out and buy emergency lighting strip lights. Our freezer had defrosted and this morning I had to throw all of the food in there into the bin."

A spokesman for EDF energy expected power to be restored last night, adding that a new transformer had been built and was due to be put in place today.

"It is a complex process, and it is likely to be Thursday before the work is finished," he added.

"We do apologise to customers for the inconvenience this has caused."

However, he said it was unlikely that compensation would be paid to customers.

"It has to be over 18 hours continuously down before anyone is entitled to compensation. This probably won't apply in this case because it's not continuously without power," he said.