We're finalising our preparations ahead of Storm Amy this weekend

We're taking a range of steps to prepare for Storm Amy this weekend. The first named storm of this autumn is forecast to bring sustained storm-force winds to much of our Scottish network area, and disruption to the electricity network is expected. Hundreds of additional team members are standing by to support our response.  

We've been monitoring the development of Storm Amy for several days, and have been operating at its heightened ‘Yellow Alert’ status since Wednesday morning. This reflects the latest assessments of the significant impact this storm is expected to have on our network. Over the past few days, the storm’s track has continually shifted, and the extent of areas likely to face damaging gusts has increased.

The Met Office has issued its own Amber Alert for much of Scotland for high winds.

👷 Our response in detail 

We've drafted in additional teams to further bolster its response to this storm. Hundreds of extra people have been stood up, and planned network maintenance has been cancelled so repairs can be prioritised. These additional colleagues are being deployed to help support customers in the following ways:   

• Extra network engineers will be in the control room, to remotely reroute the network around faults that occur. In many cases, this can be done quickly, meaning briefer disruption to supplies.  
• Where possible, more field engineers will be moved to areas where the impact is forecast to be greatest; they’ll fix faults as quickly as possible once it’s safe to do so. However, the predicted duration of dangerous, storm-force winds may affect the schedule of this work.
  
• Additional engineers are being sourced from our own Scotland-based teams, colleagues from our central southern England network areas, and from contract partners.
  
• Dozens of extra people will be working in our Customer Contact Centre to respond to calls and social media messages from customers.   
• Additional tree-cutting teams will help engineers access faults on the network; storm-force winds mean that trees – which are still shedding leaves – are at greater risk. Fallen trees have the potential to cause access issues, not only for ourselves, but other critical services too.  
• Text messages are being sent to over 180,000 of our more vulnerable customers, giving them help and advice in the event they lose power. In addition, telephone calls will be made to the most vulnerable people in areas expected to be worst hit, with offers of further, tailored support.   
  
  

🌬️ The weekend’s weather forecast  

Our own modelling for late in the evening on Friday and throughout Saturday predicts wind speeds of more than 80mph for the Western and Northern Isles, along the length of Scotland’s west coast, the northwest Highlands, Caithness, Moray, and the Aberdeenshire coast. In the most exposed areas, gusts of 90mph are likely. These sustained strong winds will come after prolonged heavy rain, which will weaken the ground beneath trees.

Winds speeds will be slightly lower on Saturday, but strong gusts will be sustained, and their direction is also forecast to change.

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

“Storm Amy is set to be a disruptive autumn storm, and we’ve prepared accordingly, with extra teams ready to reconfigure the network, fix faults, and support our customers. Our enlarged teams will be working throughout the weekend to do everything we can to minimise disruption.

“The forecast gales are some of the most severe and sustained we’ve seen in recent years, and storm-force winds of this prolonged nature can pose challenges when it comes to fixing faults, as we can only work at height when conditions become safe for us to do so.

“Customers can be reassured that while we’ll repair the network as soon as we can, we’ll also be keeping them informed and supported in a range of other ways, including co-ordinating welfare checks and hot meal provision for those communities facing extended outages.”

📞 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.

Customers are also being encouraged to be prepared for the possibility of disruption to supplies by:

• Saving the emergency power cut number - '105' - to your phone to report any loss of supply or damage to the electricity network
• Visiting our Power Track Website to give you details of power cuts and restoration times. You can also report power cuts and network damage through Power Track.
• Visiting the "Preparing for a power cut" section on our website, where there is a wealth of advice and information, or to chat live to one of our advisors via the Webchat service

Customers are also eligible for our Priority Services if they:

• Are deaf or hard of hearing
• Have a disability
• Live with children under five
• Are blind or partially-sighted
• Have a chronic illness
• Use medical equipment/aids reliant on electricity
• Are over 60.

To find out more about SSEN's Priority Services, click here or call 0800 294 3259.