Successive failures of three out of four Belco power cables to the West End was the cause of electricity cuts that blacked out thousands of customers, the firm said yesterday. A spokesman for Belco explained that one line went out of commission last Wednesday and repair work started the next day.But he added that another line failed on Thursday, although power supply was maintained by the two other cables.However, the spokesman said: “As repairs were being made on Thursday afternoon, a fault occurred on the third transmission cable.“With faults in three out of the four transmission cables, electricity supply to the West End was compromised, as the one remaining cable could not carry the load.”About 7,000 customers were left without power until Friday morning because of the faults.The spokesman said: “Parts of the West End remained with power, as there was one cable in operation.“Very early Friday morning, one cable was repaired, restoring power to some customers.“Later on Friday morning, a second cable was repaired, restoring power to all customers.”The other cable was fixed by Friday evening.The spokesman said Belco was working on a grid modernisation project, which will include the replacement of underground cables, some more than 60 years old. The spokesman added: “These grid upgrades will assist in preventing similar outages in future.”But he refused to comment if Belco would pay compensation to a Dockyard ice-cream business that had lost $10,000 of stock as a result of the power loss.The spokesman said: “Any matters between Belco and our customers are private and confidential.”Peter Jovetic, the owner of Alex and Pete’s Bermuda Ice Cream Shop, said Belco had “flatly denied” his request to Belco to pay for the wasted product.