Following the impact of Storm Brian, which caused widespread disruption across parts of England and Wales throughout the course of today, SSEN has this this evening returned to business as usual for its southern central England distribution network.

Whilst the storm was not as bad as many forecasts predicted, wind gusts of 79 mph were recorded in Weymouth, as well as prolonged coastal winds and heavy rain throughout SSEN's network region. Throughout the course of the storm, there were 15 faults on SSEN's high voltage network impacting a total of 8,796 customers. The main faults experienced by SSEN today affected approximately 3,700 customers in Hungerford, and 2,229 customers in Marlow.

As of 21:30 this evening, only 6 faults were outstanding, with just 260 customers still off supply. All remaining faults have been fully resourced and will be restored this evening.

Commenting, Craig Gilroy, Director of Operations, said:

"Our network stood up well to Storm Brian and I would like to thank all our customers who experienced a power cut for their patience as we restored their power. I would also like to thank all our teams for working so hard to get the lights back on for our customers safely and quickly in challenging autumn conditions."

"We have now returned to business as usual but we will not be complacent and I would like to reassure our customers we will keep a close on the weather and are well prepared to respond to whatever other challenges the British weather has in store for us this winter."