Update: Work continues to restore power to homes across the north-east
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.
As of 11am today, power has been restored to 75,000 customers with 45,000 customers currently off supply.
SSEN expects to restore power to significant numbers of customers throughout the course of today.
However, due to the extent of damage caused, with multiple faults on several overhead circuits, as well as significant damage still to be fully assessed on the low voltage network, it may take several days before power is restored to all customers.
SSEN is therefore giving advance notice to customers who remain off supply, particularly those in rural and isolated communities, that it cannot guarantee power will be restored today and is encouraging those customers to consider making alternative arrangements where possible.
As its teams continue to assess the damage caused and carry out repairs, further detail will be shared today on likely restoration times for all customers who remain off supply, including those areas which will not be restored today.
SSEN continues to work closely with local resilience partners to help coordinate community response, having activated established resilience plans. As part of this, SSEN and its resilience partners are actively prioritising support for the most vulnerable customers on SSEN’s Priority Services Register, including making alternative arrangements where possible.
Mark Rough, Director of Customer Operations at SSEN, said:“Our teams are responding to some of the most significant and challenging conditions experienced in the areas affected in decades, with catastrophic damage on several overhead circuits due to multiple instances of damage which need to be repaired before power can be restored.
"To put this is context, the damage caused by Storm Arwen is three times greater than we experienced from the Beast from the East storm in 2018.
“We do expect to make good progress today and restore power to significant numbers of customers who remain off supply.
"However, as it is likely to take several days before each and every customer is restored and the network is back to normal operations, we are this morning giving advance notice to customers who remain off supply, particularly those in rural and isolated communities, that it may take several days before power is restored.
"Those customers may therefore want to consider making alternative arrangements where possible.
“We fully appreciate the challenging situation our customers are facing with another day without power and we would like to apologise again to everyone who has been impacted by Storm Arwen and thank them for their patience as we do everything we can to restore power as quickly as possible.
“As well as prioritising restoring faults which will reconnect as many customers as possible, we are also prioritising support for our most vulnerable customers, working closely with our local resilience partners.
“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.”
Additional resources continue to be deployed in response to the major incident, with over 500 field staff concentrated in the areas which continue to be affected, with an additional 150 support staff.
Helicopters continue to be monitor overhead circuits to assess the extent of damage caused, with extensive mobile generation being deployed to assist with power restoration.
The following welfare facilities have been established to support customers who remain off supply, with additional welfare facilities to be deployed throughout the course of today to areas which continue to be impacted.
Cullen, beach front
Keith, Curry Contractors Yard (outskirts of Keith)
Kintore, in the square
Turriff, Tesco car park
Tarland, in the square
A Rest Centre has also been established in Ballater at the Victoria and Albert Hall to provide welfare support for customers who remain off supply in surrounding areas, with a hot food van serving meals and hot drinks to affected customers.
With Customer Contact Centre lines remaining extremely busy, SSEN continues 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 later this afternoon.
