Since Friday when hurricane force winds and rain battered the network, just short of 100,000 customers’ electricity has been restored, with now 12,700 waiting for their power to come back on. Yesterday atrocious weather conditions – driving snow, sleet, heavy winds, lightning and ice – hampered efforts by engineers to access the network for repairs. If the weather holds today, especially lightning, then the remaining customers’ electricity supply should resume by midnight tonight. SHEPD is confident that it shall have a significant number back on by midday.
Alan Broadbent, Director of Engineering, said: “Where ever it was safe to do so, our engineers worked through the night to carry out repairs. This really has become a fight with the weather – we have the people, the resources, the commitment, but what we really need is a bit of luck for the weather to let us do our job and bring comfort to our customers who had to endure such appalling disruption. I would again like to apologise to them for this.”
Meanwhile SHEPD’s welfare programme continues apace. Since Wednesday, before the storm struck, customer call centre staff have spoken to around 800 customers who needed a priority service. These calls continue to be made. Teams have also been visiting vulnerable customers, providing them with hot food and drinks, and charging batteries for their emergency “on call” alarms. Other welfare teams have delivered oil for those who have private electrical generators; arranged accommodation for medically-dependent and disabled customers; provided blankets; helped customers with trip switches once power was restored; and shared our list of vulnerable customers with our emergency partners.
Elsewhere mobile catering facilities were despatched to areas worst hit by the storm. The electricity distributor also hired local restaurants and food businesses to provide free hot food and drinks. Ten thousand meals and 15,000 hot and cold drinks have been served so far.
With the worsening weather picture, SHEPD also boosted the number of engineers. On top of the one thousand technical and support staff, 200 more were drafted in from SHEPD’s sister company in England, and also from other electricity network operators around the UK.
These are the customers currently off supply:
| Area | Customers affected |
| Rural areas around Dingwall | 2052 |
| Rural areas around Dunoon | 339 |
| Elgin/Huntly | 116 |
| Rural areas around Fort William | 62 |
| Inverness rural | 3914 |
| Rural areas around Oban | 29 |
| Rural areas around Perth | 49 |
| Shetland | 535 |
| Skye | 835 |
| Western Isles | 2726 |
| Rural areas around Wick | 2039 |
Keep an eye on SSEPD's live storm feed on their website for all of the latest updates.