Hundreds of staff responsible for supplying power across a huge tract of northern England are set to start industrial action in a pay row.
Maintenance staff working for electricity suppliers YEDL and NEDL are refusing to work overtime or cover standby shifts from Thursday.
Union Unite, which represents about 700 staff at the companies, said talks had been going on since February.
Parent company CE Electric said cover would be in place during the action.
Union negotiator Kevan Parker said the pay talks were not connected to the issue of energy prices.
He said: "From 4pm until 7.30am all the repair work is covered by standby arrangement.
"There are a number of teams usually ready to go out, which means there was usually about 150 staff on standby on any one night."
Constructive dialogue
But from Thursday morning, the union's members will not cover the standby shifts, or take part in overtime working.
Mr Parker said while the union had a claim on the table for 8%, this included a range of pay anomalies which needed "ironing out " and aimed to bring workers at NEDL and YEDL into line with employees doing the same job at other electricity providers.
He said the company had made an offer of 3.8% and he added that "somewhere between those two figures there's a deal".
In a statement the parent company, CE Electric said: "This is not strike action and we already have measures in place to ensure that customers continue to receive a safe and reliable electricity supply throughout the period of the industrial action.
"These include the continuation of shift working and the increased use of the experienced contractors that we use under normal business operations to provide additional assistance as necessary for work needed outside of normal working hours.
"We remain in constructive dialogue with the trade unions concerned, with whom we have a professional working relationship."
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