SSEN's teams continue to make good progress to restore power to the last remaining customers affected by the impact of Storm Caroline, which brought sustained gale force winds to many areas across the north of Scotland. Throughout the course of the event, SSEN has successfully reconnected 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.

As of 2.30pm, just 250 homes remain off supply, with the main areas still affected being Orkney and Shetland. All faults have been resourced and SSEN anticipates all homes will have power restored by this evening.

To support efforts to restore power to those homes who remained off supply overnight, SSEN has moved additional teams to the areas affected and is also working closely 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. This includes working in coordination with the HM Coastguard, who are providing a helicopter to get additional teams and resource to South Ronaldsay, Orkney.

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.

Director of Customer Operations, Dale Cargill, said:

"We have made excellent progress to restore power to the remaining homes affected by Storm Caroline and I would again like to thank all our customers their continued patience as our teams battled against the elements.I would also like to thank the HM Coastguard for supporting efforts to get our teams over to South Ronaldsay.

"As the ongoing weather conditions could cause further damage to our network, 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.