Ministers criticised energy bosses yesterday over their unconcern about 150,000 homes being left without power after severe storms this Christmas.

Energy committee chairman Tim Yeo blasted the companies for exploiting their "privileged monopoly position" and displaying "a neglect of your customers."

UK Power Networks chief executive Basil Scarsella made excuses to MPs, claiming that the combination of the storms' severity and their national reach meant that "tried and tested" plans struggled to cope.

Energy Networks Association chief executive David Smith baffled MPs over the hashed planning for a 999-style emergency number to deal with such situations.

Earlier this month Energy Secretary Ed Davey said the government was looking to introduce such a number.

But when Mr Smith was asked if he had told Mr Davey's office that the claims being made about its introduction were "complete nonsense," he replied: "We had the conversation with the Secretary of State and one of the things that we were very clear on was we need to do some more work, we need to get the final bits and pieces in place and that was the key point."

More than 150,000 homes were cut off after strong winds, torrential rain and flooding caused damage to power networks, with many left without electricity for up to five days.

Mr Yeo told the power bosses they "lacked any expression of real concern for your customers."

He said: "It's absolutely typical of a monopoly - particularly monopolies whose charges are not very visible to the customers who have to pay them.

"You have managed to make the Secretary of State look ridiculous in his claim that there is going to be a three-digit number that customers can use."

Mr Yeo concluded the session by raising doubts about their efforts in the future.

He said: "There is no sense of urgency in what you said about any plans to step up your capacity to respond to severe weather even though we now have quite clear warnings that extreme events are likely to take place more frequently in future.

"That's characteristic of monopolies whose activities are not very effectively scrutinised by anybody until now."