Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has returned to business as usual for its central southern England network following the impact of Storm Bronagh.

Throughout Thursday night into Friday morning, Storm Bronagh brought a period of gale-force winds and heavy rain across SSEN's network area. Wind gusts in excess of 50mph were recorded throughout the weather event, approaching 60mph in coastal regions, causing damage to SSEN's overhead network as a result of falling trees, branches and wind-borne debris.

Over the course of the event, SSEN successfully restored power to around 25,000 properties, with welfare facilities placed in locations worst affected to ensure SSEN's customers had access to hot food and drinks throughout the day.

Craig Gilroy, SSEN's Director of Customer Operations, said:

"I would like to thank all of our customers affected by Storm Bronagh for their patience as our engineers worked to restore their power as quickly as possible overnight and through the course of the day. Our network held up well to very challenging conditions and I'd like to thank our operational teams for their hard work to restore supplies and offer extra help and welfare facilities where required."

"With high winds forecast to return on Sunday, we will continue monitoring weather conditions as they develop over the weekend, and are well prepared and resourced to respond to any further damage. Should our customers notice any damage to our network, or experience a power cut, I'd encourage them to call our teams on 105 or report it via our Power Track app."

Customers can prepare for the possibility of disruption to supplies by:

  • Saving the new Freephone 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 and to report faults or damage to SSEN's network
  • Going to SSEN's website for advice and information on how to prepare for a possible loss of power, or to chat live to one of SSEN's advisors via its Webchat service
  • Following SSEN on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates