Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution has restored power to homes and businesses which lost supply in the wake of Storm Gerrit.  

In response to this weather event, which brought sustained gale force winds, including recorded wind speeds of 86mph in Inverbervie, Aberdeenshire and 84mph in Lerwick, Shetland, SSEN’s teams have worked for several days in difficult conditions, and overcoming access challenges, to restore power to more than 48,000 properties.   

Efforts have been ongoing for the past 48 hours to reconnect affected customers, with a final push throughout Friday being focused on the pockets of isolated faults across Aberdeenshire, Perthshire and The Great Glen where the last-remaining properties were reconnected by 11pm last night.  

SSEN deployed additional teams to restore power and support people throughout the storm. Nearly 14,000 incoming calls from customers have been answered, while more than 11,000 proactive calls were made to Priority Service Register customers. 

In addition, customer relationship teams have been on the ground in communities, checking in on vulnerable residents, while food vans units have served more than 4,500 hot meals to those affected over the past two days.  

SSEN Distribution’s Operations Director, Andy Smith says, 

“Storm Gerrit caused serious disruption across the north of Scotland, and I would like to say thank you to our customers for their patience while we worked through some particularly challenging conditions to reconnect them, as quickly and safely as possible.   

“I’m very proud of the work undertaken by SSEN’s operational teams, and for being out at all hours and in all weathers to find and fix the faults over the past few days.  I would also like to extend my gratitude to our contract partners and fellow network operators for how they supported our response.  

“I’d like to encourage people to apply for the compensation they’re entitled to depending on how long they were without supplies and wish our customers all the very best for 2024.” 

SSEN Distribution thanks residents for their help in identifying any ongoing isolated outages. Smart Meter data can now provide a useful indicator if someone’s supply has been reconnected, but if any customers are still without supplies and haven’t been contacted by us, please call SSEN on the freephone 105 number to report your fault. It may a very localised issue, not visible on central systems.   

As part of the support package for customers impacted by power cuts, people who have had no power for more than 12 hours are entitled to £30 per person for every day without power, to cover the cost of food and drink. People should keep hold of receipts and claim costs back at www.ssen.co.uk/stormclaim 
 
Once final fault assessments are carried out, any customers impacted for over 48 hours will be entitled to compensation under the regulated Guaranteed Standards of Performance. For power interruptions over 48 hours, customers will receive £80, with a further £40 for every subsequent 6-hour period they were off supply,(up to a maximum of £2000). Customers do not need to contact SSEN to request compensation. This process is automatic and will be processed as quickly as possible in the weeks after the event. 

If you see any damage to SSEN’s power equipment, please keep your distance. Do not touch it and instead report it to SSEN directly by calling 105, or via the Power Track App, and engineers will investigate as soon as possible.