We're preparing for Storm Amy, which will affect the north of Scotland this weekend

We’re now at Yellow Alert in the north of Scotland ahead of Storm Amy, which is forecast to bring sustained storm-force winds and heavy rain on Friday and Saturday. The likely severity of this storm means we’re already making extra preparations.

Our Yellow Alert reflects our assessment of the storm’s potential impact, and the decisions we're taking to get ready before this storm arrives. The Met Office has issued its own Yellow weather warnings which can be found here.

💨 The Weather forecast 

Our weather modelling for late in the evening on Friday and throughout Saturday predicts wind speeds in excess of 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 follow prolonged heavy rain, which will weaken the ground beneath trees. These severe conditions mean network disruption is expected, and we’re already preparing for this.

ABOVE: SSEN's Head of Control Brian Morrisey explains how we're getting prepared ahead of Storm Amy.

👷 How we’re responding 

We’ve activated our well-rehearsed contingency plans, bringing in additional teams to deal with any damage to the network and subsequent faults, which may interrupt customers’ power supplies. Where possible, we’ll get these teams in position prior to the worst of the weather arriving.  Extra engineers will be on duty in our control rooms to quickly re-route customers’ supplies around network faults wherever possible.

We’re increasing the number of people on shift in our customer contact centres; they’ll be ready to answer your telephone calls and respond to queries on social media. In advance of this severe weather arriving, we'll be sending information via text message to our more vulnerable customers to provide them with guidance on what preparations to make, along with help and advice on what they can do if the power goes off. Our dedicated Priority Services team will be in touch with especially vulnerable customers in those areas most likely to be affected to offer further support.

We’ll continue to monitor the weather forecast closely and will issue further updates depending on the forecast.        

📞 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.