Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has moved to Yellow Alert for its north of Scotland distribution area.
Following close monitoring of Storm Barbara, our models anticipate maximum wind gusts of over 90 mph in the Western Isles, North West Highland, Orkney and Shetland from the afternoon of Friday 23 December and into Saturday 24 December. All other parts of our network area will see winds gusts of up to 70mph.
In response, we have increased the levels of frontline and support staff standing by and are moving engineers, plant and welfare facilities to the areas we expect to be impacted by the storm.
Our customer service team has been making outbound calls to customers on our Priority Service Register in the affected areas to alert them and offer extra assistance, where required. People can qualify for the PSR if they:
- Are dependent on electricity for home medical care
- Have a chronic illness or short term medical condition
- Are disabled
- Have special communication needs
- Have a young baby or receive a state pension.
To find out more about the PSR, click here or call 0800 294 3259.
Our network is resilient in these weather conditions, but in anticipation of possible disruption to power supplies, we would encourage our customers to be prepared. This can done by:
- Saving the new emergency power cut number '105' to your phone to use if your power goes off, or if you see any damage to the electricity network.
- Downloading SSEN's Power Track app to give you details of power cuts and restoration times.
- Going to SSEN's Ready For Winter pages where there is a wealth of advice and information on how to prepare for a possible loss of power.
- Following SSEN on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates.