NATIONAL Grid is planning to cut out-of-hours calls to homes without power - because it says the work is too noisy.
The firm, which made £5billion in profits last year, could leave families for up to 12 hours overnight, saving on engineer call-out costs and dodging Ofgem fines.
And it has justified the move by saying such work can be "noisy and disruptive".
A source said: "This will mean some customers will be off-supply overnight while the National Grid is saving money.
"This way they don't have to pay for the engineer call-out and they don't have to pay the fine. Feels like it's the customer losing out again."
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National Grid, responsible for power connections to homes, currently says a worker will attend within three hours if notified between 7am and 7pm on weekdays or 9am and 5pm at weekends.
It is fined £35 per customer if it fails to attend. And if any home is cut-off for more than 12 hours, a fine of £90 has to be paid to customers.
But the company has categorically promised no customers will ever go 12-hours without a call-out.
That means as well as avoiding the pricey out-of-hours employee costs - the firm will not have to pay customers compensation.
The trial call-out cuts are part of a wider £400million saving project to help fund a nationwide refit of the grid.
National Grid promised no vulnerable customers would be affected.
National Grid said: "If we do make this change it will be on a trial basis, and we will continue to honour our commitment to work to restore customers' power supply within 12 hours."
