Citi staff in London work from home due to power outage

(Bloomberg) Citigroup Inc.'s office staff at the Canary Wharf complex are working from home, as a major power outage in East London continues until Wednesday, taking computer networks out of service and triggering emergency power supplies.

Many Citigroup employees in the UK were forced to return home on Tuesday to work or carry out activities in other offices when parts of the Canary Wharf building ran out of power, according to a person familiar with the matter. The outage could last longer, according to a memorandum sent to staff by James Bardrick, Citigroup's UK head

“We expect access to electricity in and around Canary Wharf to be compromised tomorrow, and possibly for a longer period of time,” Bardrick wrote Tuesday.

In another memo, Bardrick said Wednesday that, although Citigroup's office was open and operational, the bank advised staff to work from home while repairs to power systems continued.

“The energy infrastructure that supplies Canary Wharf Estate has been hit hard and remains uncertain,” he wrote.

“Our offices are currently operating on a combination of UK Power power and our backup generation system while working to restore the main power grid in one of our buildings,” he added.

Howard Dawber, chief strategy officer of Canary Wharf Group Plc, said he had not seen such a serious power outage in 20 years and that Canary Wharf had provided generators to tenants. Dawber said the complex is connected to two separate parts of London's power grid, which was crucial to avoid even more serious energy loss.

Original Note:

Citi Workers Stay Home as Power Cut Hits Canary Wharf (2)

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