Home   News   Article

Update: SSEN continues to respond to severe impact of Storm Arwen


By David Porter

Easier access to your trusted, local news. Subscribe to a digital package and support local news publishing.



Click here to sign up to our free newsletters!

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) remains at red alert status for its north of Scotland electricity network as its teams continue to respond to widespread and extensive damage to its network caused by Storm Arwen and has provided the following update as off 11.30am.

Power lines are still down in many areas.
Power lines are still down in many areas.

Throughout the night and into this morning they have made progress in restoring power to around 9500 customers, including the main network supply to the following locations-

Killin in Perthshire, Alford and parts of Aboyne in Aberdeenshire

Since the start of Storm Arwen at around lunchtime on Friday, power has been restored to 98,000 customers in total, with 24,000 customers currently off supply.

Faults affecting the following locations are currently being worked on and our teams will continue to work into the evening to carry out repairs, subject to no new damage being identified or any unforeseen difficulties.

Aberdeenshire: Braemar, Ballater, Kintore, Fyvie, Rothienorman, New Deer, Dyce, Methlick, Tarland, Blackburn, Forgue, Hatton, Cuminestown, Dunecht, St. Cyrus and Fettercairn,

Moray: Duffus, Alvah, Deskford, Collieston, Boyndie, Dufftown

For all other locations that remain off supply and are not listed above, we do not expect power to be restored before tomorrow at the earliest.

For localised faults, affecting single households and groups of houses, this will unfortunately extend beyond tomorrow and we are advising customers in this situation to consider alternative arrangements, if possible.

We would like to apologise to all customers for the ongoing disruption and assure them that we are doing all we can to restore power and that we are deploying all available resources to focus on this effort.

SSEN continues to work closely with local and national resilience partners to help coordinate the community response.

As part of this, support is being prioritised for the most vulnerable Priority Services Register customers, such as those dependent on medical equipment, where SSEN is making alternative arrangements where possible.

This includes liaising with local resilience partners to share details of Priority Services customers who will remain off supply overnight to coordinate support where required.

A Rest Centre has also been established in Ballater at the Victoria and Albert Hall.

In addition, the following welfare facilities will continue to support customers who remain off supply and will continue to provide hot food and drinks throughout the course of the day, with teams from SSEN using 4X4 vehicles to deliver hot food and drinks to customers on SSEN’s Priority Services Register in some of the more remote and isolated communities:

Aboyne, The Green

Cruden Bay, Main Street

Strichen, Strichen Park

Keith, Curry Contractors Yard (outskirts of Keith)

Kintore, Primary School

St Combs, Community Hall

Turriff, Tesco car park

Fyvie, Sheiling Tor car park.

Mark Rough, director of customer operations at SSEN, said: “The severity and prolonged nature of Storm Arwen has caused widespread and extensive damage to our network in the north east of Scotland, with significant and challenging conditions resulting in multiple instances of damage to several overhead line circuits.

“We continue to make good progress carrying out repairs and restoring power, with additional 9,500 customer supplies restored overnight and into this morning.

"We are committed to restoring power to as many customers today as possible, but given the complexity and scale of the situation some customers will continue to be without power overnight.

"The extent of damage means the repair work needed is complex and often requires lengthy clearance of access just to reach the problem areas, with substantial tree cutting and re-erection of overhead network infrastructure.

“We continue to work closely with our local resilience partners to prioritise support for our most vulnerable customers.

"We would encourage any customer with a vulnerability who has concerns about remaining off supply, or if you have concerns about a vulnerable relative or neighbour, please give our teams a call on 105.

“We would once again like to thank our customers for their continued patience and understanding in what continues to be very challenging circumstances.”

With Customer Contact Centre lines remaining extremely busy, we continue to encourage customers impacted to only phone if it is an emergency or if they need extra help, to keep the line clear for vulnerable customers who may need extra support.

The next update will be provided late afternoon.


Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.



This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More