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Our huge operation to restore power to homes is making continued progress, with the vast majority of households due to have their electricity back on by the end of today. This work is particularly focused on specific areas of the Great Glen, the Fort William area, and Ardnamurchan. Today, even more tree-cutting and engineering teams have been at work in these areas to further speed up the reconnection process.

As of 4:30pm on Tuesday afternoon, 1,400 households remain off supply, mainly in the Highlands. A total of 87,000 customers have now been reconnected following Storm Amy’s exceptionally destructive winds. The last remaining network faults are complex in nature and spread out over a wide area, which is why even more teams have been deployed in the Highlands to tackle these particularly challenging repairs as safely and quickly as possible.



The latest facts on Storm Amy, and details on our extent of our response:

  • This storm caused damage to more than 700 separate parts of the network

  • More than 400 engineers and two dozen tree-cutting teams are working in affected areas in the Highlands to reconnect households still without power

  • Teams from the UK’s other network operators and contract partners have been once again supporting SSEN’s in-house engineers

  • Access issues have persisted, with Monday’s heavy rain causing further challenges

  • More than 20,000 free hot meals have been served to customers from food vans and local businesses. Several venues are open again today; details are on Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ Facebook page and at www.ssen.co.uk/stormsupport

  • Customers awaiting reconnection have been contacted today with further updates

  • The Customer Contact Centre has taken more than 18,000 calls from customers since the storm began. On average, calls have been answered in just over one minute

Financial reimbursement

As part of our support package, customers without power for more than 12 hours and who have not been able to visit one of our free hot food outlets 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’re without power for more than 24 hours. Support with booking accommodation can be provided if needed. Customers can claim this in the same way as food and drink.

And if a power cut is confirmed to have lasted beyond 48 hours, all customers can benefit from this support, and can claim costs back in the same way as for food and drink.

Compensation

Customers may have questions regarding compensation, which 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.

Nik Wheeler, SSEN’s Head of Customer Operations for the north of Scotland:

“As the enormous job of fixing 700 separate instances of damage on the network enters its final stages, I want to reiterate how grateful I am to everyone – but especially those who’ve been without power for an extended period – for their understanding and patience. We’re doing all we can to get the vast majority of homes back on by the end today, but for a few individual areas, this could go into tomorrow. These customers are being contacted directly.

“I know the time it’s taken to reconnect some households has made for a very tough few days for many of our customers. We’re sorry about this; it’s been down the exceptional circumstances of Storm Amy. We’ve got people back on as safely and as quickly as we could in particularly tough conditions, using every single resource at our disposal.

“We’re once again offered hot food provision in a number of affected areas during the day, and I’d like to remind people of the compensation and reimbursement they’ll be entitled to following this storm, and I urge them to submit any claims soon. Our teams are expecting a large number of these to come in, and we’ll process these as soon as we can.”

📞 Help and advice

If you see any damage to our equipment, please stay back, don’t touch it and instead report it to us directly by calling 105, or via our Power Track Website, and engineers will investigate as soon as possible.

Support during a power cut

To keep updated with any power cuts across our network, we are encouraging our customers to save the emergency power cut number 105 and to follow us on Facebook and Twitter (ssencommunity) for regular updates.

  • Priority Services

    We all rely on electricity day to day for various things, but for some, a power cut can be worrying or difficult. That’s why we offer extra help and support during a power cut. Registering for our Priority Services helps us to help you when you need it most. All our priority services are free.
    Priority Services

  • View our tips and advice to help you during a power cut

    Dealing with a power cut

    If you are currently experiencing a power cut, we know this can be a difficult time. That's why wee've put together some helpful tips and advice to help you during a power cut. You can also download our useful resources to share with your family, friends, and neighbours.
    Advice and support

  • Report a power cut or damage to our network through our map

    Power Track

    You can stay updated and track the progress of any faults in your area on our Power Track map or report damage to our network. You can also follow the progress of planned interruptions as well as find the nearest EV charge point if you have an electric vehicle that needs charging during a power cut.
    Power Track