Driving snow, sheet ice and gale force winds have plagued efforts to restore electricity to many parts of northern and western Scotland.
In spite of these treacherous conditions Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution has restored supplies to 83,000 customers, following hurricane winds of up to 113mph which damaged parts of the electricity network. The deteriorating weather has also brought heavy snowfalls and ice, making some roads impassable and access to the network difficult. On Shetland sustained strong winds of more than 100mph made it impossible for engineers to work safely.
Alan Broadbent, Director of Engineering, explained some of the challenges now facing technical staff: “Our electricity network was battered continuously by hurricane winds for eight hours on Thursday night and during much of Friday. This has weakened it in places, which caused more power cuts overnight. I know an apology may not be much comfort for our customers who have been without power, but I would like to apologise again and reassure them that we are doing all we possibly can during extremely treacherous, challenging and severe weather conditions – especially those customers who have been off supply since yesterday.”
Some parts of the Highlands and Western Isles are likely to be without power overnight. In response, SHEPD has hired four welfare vans, 11 mobile catering units, as well as some local restaurants and food businesses to provide free food to communities where the weather has caused the most damage. SHEPD is keeping its customers informed through regular phone calls, social and digital media.
With the worsening weather picture, SHEPD has also boosted the number of engineers. On top of the thousand technical and support staff, 200 more were drafted in yesterday afternoon from SHEPD’s sister company in England, and also from other electricity network operators around the UK.
The 29,000 customers currently without power are in the following areas:
| Area | Customers Affected |
| Buchan | 448 |
| Rural parts of Dingwall | 3392 |
| Rural parts of Dunoon | 1034 |
| Elgin/Huntly | 532 |
| Rural parts of Fort William | 387 |
| Inverness-shire | 7362 |
| Rural parts of Oban | 460 |
| Rural parts of Perth | 40 |
| Shetland | 2012 |
| Skye | 3647 |
| Western Isles | 6143 |
| Rural parts of Wick | 3517 |
Keep an eye on SSEPD's live storm feed on their website for all of the latest updates.