Power outage? Take trillion pounds, said this UK company

We all have to face power outages sometimes. Sure, it creates a lot of discomfort. The phone battery dies in the middle of a particularly exciting series and there's no way to charge. You curse your life, this world and your existence. But how about a trillion pounds as a compensation for your discomfort? Life is suddenly a rosy picture. That web series can go...play itself.  

Such a thing (not involving a web series) actually happened in the UK when Northern PowerGrid, a power distribution company, wrote away mother of all compensation cheques worth more than 2.3 trillion pounds to 74 customers for having experienced blackouts. These blackouts had taken place when storm Arwen hit the country in November last year.

This is surely an overkill right? Trillion pounds for a power outage.

One of the recepient of these cheques thought the same and posted an image of the cheque online

“Thank you for our compensation payment @Northpowergrid for the several days we were without power following #stormarwen. Before I bank the cheque, however, are you 100% certain you can afford this? #trillionpounds.” tweeted Gareth Hughes.

The post went viral (duh!) and 55,000 people liked it. Many of them asked Hughes to try cashing the cheque just to see what happens. Some others jokingly wanted him to be a national hero and clear national debt.

“Be a sport and take the money to clear the national debt.” wrote one user.

It was revealed later on that the benevolence of the power company was due to a clerical error. 

“We thank those customers who were honest and contacted us and we have been making contact directly over the weekend with all 74 customers affected to make them aware, apologise for the error and reassure them that a correct payment will be issued to them on Monday," a spokesperson of the Northern Grid said as quoted by Sky News.