Hundreds of pounds of food have been thrown away by angry customers at "Electric Ireland"

Hundreds of pounds of food have been thrown away by angry customers at "Electric Ireland" continuing power outages.

Electric Ireland customers in Ireland (Northern Ireland), part of the UK, remain without power due to a fault with keypad top-ups. Several people said they were without power for more than 48 hours due to the problem. NIE Networks said it is now installing new meters for all disconnected customers.

Electric Ireland is Northern Ireland's third-largest electricity supplier, with around 100,000 customers. Electric Ireland has apologized for the mistake, but many customers are angry on social media as the company says it only affected a few people.

In the UK and Europe, electricity meter recharge is available in the country using a mobile company recharge coupon. It motivates people to get prepaid electricity. Without top up the meter will not work. So many people use it. But the top up cards have become inactive. Many say the fault affected top-ups purchased between midnight on August 30 and 13:23 BST on August 31. Electric Ireland says the issue means the keypads are capped at £10, so anyone who bought £10 or more of credit during that period will not be able to add it to their keypads.

Many customers who tried to do so only got a "credit hi" message on their meter. This meant they could not provide new top-ups to meters until Electric Ireland canceled all previous attempts - leaving some people without power.

Father-of-five Christopher Stephens, from Ballymena, has been without power since 17:00 on Friday. He had to dispose of £250 worth of fresh and frozen food. "It's a crisis for me," he said. "There's the cost of living, we're throwing things in the bin because I can't get electricity to my house, it's not my fault."

Power failure has put many people in crisis. The lack of electricity is causing stress as her children prepare to return to school on Monday. It's frustrating, it's stressful. Communication with Electric Ireland was poor. Many are waiting in the dark, not knowing what is happening. "NO MONEY" message appears on the power keypad.

But the company said people should not buy more top-ups until they contact them, as this will "delay the solution". "We are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible and will provide updates as they become available," the company said. We will re-issue canceled top-ups as soon as possible. Our primary priority is to fix all affected meters.

NIE Networks owns the network of lines, poles and substations that carry electricity from power stations to homes and businesses. But they neither generate electricity nor sell electricity to consumers.