Demon is still trying to sort out the backlog of email caused by a power cut that hit its Network Operations Centre (NOC) in Finchley yesterday.

The problem for Demon's punters started when the public power supply was hit early yesterday morning.

But then a fault occurred in the power control system which meant the genny conked out too. No worries. Because then the standby batteries took over. Phew.

Unfortunately, before engineers could fix the "significant but unusual failure which required replacement parts they did not carry with them" the batteries died.

The result was Demon's service went tits up, causing its punters to lose Web access and email.

Thankfully, yesterday afternoon the power supply was restored enabling engineers to restore the system. But while most of Demon's service was back up and running by yesterday evening, it is still trying to clear the backlog of email.

A spokeswoman for Demon told The Register: "We were unlucky. It was an unfortunate set of circumstances. Lightning did strike twice."

It's not known if Demon is to invest in a lucky horseshoe, or a rabbit's foot, a clump of four-leafed clover or some other lucky charm to prevent similar luckless mishaps in the future. ®