We've now completed the enormous task of restoring power to all 90,000 homes that lost electricity due to Storm Amy’s exceptional, damaging winds. Everyone here at SSEN is grateful to all of you for your patience and understanding over the past few difficult days. We know that in a few cases reconnection has taken longer than might have been expected, and we’d like to explain why:
- Storm Amy was an unprecedented storm, setting a new UK record for low pressure in October. The lower the pressure, the worse the weather, and during Storm Amy a gust of at least 96mph was recorded at low altitude on Tiree. These storm-force winds were also prolonged, with the last of the weather warnings only being lifted nearly two days after the damaging gusts first began.
- The impact of this extreme weather on the network was profound; our power lines were damaged in 750 different locations. Each of these has had to be accessed, assessed, and repaired over the past few days, and this could only be done when conditions became safe to do so.
- Huge numbers of fallen trees, other storm debris, and flooding all hindered access to these sites at times.
- In some of the worst-hit areas, the network has been damaged at several points within a relatively short distance. All of these needed to be repaired before the power could safely flow once more.
How we’ve responded to Storm Amy
In the face of this especially severe storm, we assembled one of the largest storm-response operations in our long history.
- Almost 1,000 engineers and tree-cutters have cleared the way to damage sites, and identified and fixed faults as safely and as quickly as they could. Our own 700-strong storm response team has been supported by colleagues from our own network region in the south of England, fellow network operators from elsewhere in the UK, contract partners, and by engineers from SSEN Transmission.
- In spite of this storm causing 200 more faults than Eowyn did in January 2025, all affected customers have been reconnected one day earlier than was the case then.
- A broad-based welfare operation has helped look after customers in recent days:
- Mobile food vans and local businesses have served more than 30,000 free meals to our customers in dozens of communities.
- We’ve co-ordinated door-knocking rounds to check in on more vulnerable customers, to keep them updated and supported. These visits have been carried out by our own staff, many of whom have stepped away from their day jobs to support this effort, and by volunteers from the British Red Cross and React.
- Our Contact Centre – which had ten times the usual number of people taking calls at the storm’s peak – has spoken to more than 21,000 customers since it began. Calls have been answered within one minute on average. The same team has responded to almost 20,000 queries on social media, each within an average of 5 minutes.
- We took great care to provide customers with realistic times for when they could expect to have power again, and 88% of customers were reconnected in line with the times they were initially given.
Nik Wheeler, SSEN’s Head of Customer Operations for the north of Scotland, says:
“This storm’s been one of the most severe in recent memory, but this challenge has been met by one of the largest emergency responses in our long history. I know some customers have faced a longer wait while we’ve systematically worked through the huge volume of network damage to reconnect them. With this work now done, I’d like to thank each and every person affected for their patience, understanding, and the kindness that’s been shown to our teams as they’ve worked in local communities.
“Our ability to mount such a huge response has been made possible by the hard work and dedication of everyone who works here, but also through the help and support of fellow network operators and our contract partners. Their teams travelled north in their hundreds to be deployed to all corners of the north of Scotland network. I’m also thankful to the food providers, and the local businesses who stepped up to help us help their communities over the past few days. I’d like to express my gratitude to every single person who played their vital part in getting our communities reconnected.”
Reimbursement and compensation
As part of SSEN’s support package, customers who were without 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 any receipts and claim costs back at www.ssen.co.uk/stormclaim.
In addition, people registered for our Priority Services can claim reasonable costs for alternative accommodation if they were without power for more than 24 hours. Customers can claim this in the same way as food and drink.
And if a power cut lasted beyond 48 hours, all customers are able to benefit from this support.
Compensation is governed by Guaranteed Standards of Service set by the regulator, Ofgem.
Storm Amy has been confirmed as a Category 2 Severe Weather Event which means customers without power for more than 48 hours continuously, will receive a Guaranteed Standards payment of £85 and a subsequent payment of £45 for each continuous 6-hour period that they did not have power thereafter.
Guaranteed Standards payments are issued automatically, and customers don’t need to make a claim or contact us to receive this.
Letters will be sent out to customers eligible for Guaranteed Standards payments separately to the cheques, this will advise them that payment is on its way and will include information about the power cut that impacted them and how much they are receiving.
