Throughout the course of the event SSEN has successfully restored power to over 18,000 homes. The main areas affected have been the Western Isles, north-west Highlands, Caithness, Moray, north-east Aberdeenshire, Orkney and Shetland.

Due to the persistent and severe nature of wind speeds experienced across parts of Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, coupled with difficulty gaining access to faults, at 10pm yesterday evening SSEN took the difficult decision to stand down its field based teams for safety reasons, with around 500 customers remaining off supply overnight.

SSEN's Customer Contact Centre continues to maintain close contact with all affected customers to keep them updated and offer extra support where required, including welfare facilities and hot food and drinks.

SSEN is moving additional teams to the areas still affected to support efforts to get the remaining customers back on supply and is also working with its resilience partners to help overcome challenges with gaining access to faults as a result of cancellations to local ferry services and road closures due to snow.

Storm Caroline continues to bring winds gusting from 60 to 70mph across Caithness, Orkney and Shetland. In addition, lightning and drifting snow is now affecting localised areas of the Highlands and north Aberdeenshire and SSEN remains on Yellow Alert due to the continued risk of weather related damage to its network.

SSEN is asking its customers to remain prepared for the possibility of disruption to supplies and continues to liaise with local resilience partners to help coordinate efforts and ensure that everyone is prepared.

Director of Customer Operations, Dale Cargill, said:

"Over the past 36 hours our teams have worked tirelessly to respond to the impacts of Storm Caroline, which has seen sustained wind speeds across our network region, reaching hurricane force levels in Shetland with gusts of over 100mph recorded. Whilst conditions remain extremely challenging today due to the continued high winds, snow and risk of lightning, our teams are working hard to get the remaining customers back on supply."

"I would like to thank all our customers who have experienced a power cut for their continued patience as our teams battled against the elements to restore power. I would also like to apologise to any customers who still remain off supply and would like to reassure them we are doing all we can to get them back on as soon as possible."

"If any of our customers do experience a power cut, or have any concerns about a vulnerable family member or community member, I would encourage them to please call us on the national power cut emergency number, 105."

NOTES:

Customers are encouraged to be prepared in the event of possible disruption to power supplies, 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 website where there is a wealth of advice and information on how to deal with a power cut
  • Following SSEN on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates

In the event of an interruption in power supplies, SSEN's customer service team will make outbound calls to customers on our Priority Service Register (PSR) to 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 children under the age of five
  • Are over the age of 60

To find out more about the PSR, click here or call 0800 294 3259.