Our Distribution network across the Western Isles delivers a safe, secure and reliable power supply to nearly 19,000 homes and businesses, taking in island communities in places such as Stornoway and Benbecula, Harris and Tarbert.

In addition to our main depot in Stornoway, we have two additional operational sites, with a total of 35 colleagues keeping the power flowing all year round, often in very challenging conditions.

Our team recently caught up with Archie MacDonald - who is based in our Loch Carnan depot and is Lead Engineer for Uist and Barra - to learn a bit more about what it’s like to keep the power flowing in one of our most remote regions.

The day we met him, Archie took us out to meet colleagues at Peninerine (above), on the Isle of South Uist, about 20 minutes away from the depot. When we arrived,  everyone was in great spirits – you could sense a real feeling of teamwork – with the main focus of the morning being the preparation of new wooden poles for installation after the old ones had been dismantled.

Archie says:

“Work like this is  great example of our ongoing programme of inspection, maintenance and replacement – everything we do is designed with our customers in mind, making sure that our network is in the best possible conditions at all times.

“While the Western Isles probably gets less snow than other regions, the wind speeds certainly keep us on our toes,  but thankfully there aren’t so many trees in the Western Isles to cause disruption to our network.  

“With everyone living and working locally, there’s a great community spirit amongst us all, not just in the Loch Carnan depot but also when we travel to other sites across the Western Isles. We’re proud to be carrying out pro-active improvements such as the work you see here, keeping the equipment safe and secure which, in turn, keeps the power flowing for all our customers.”

Although work like this goes on all across our SSEN Distribution network day-in, day-out, it’s fair to say that it’s probably not done in winds of the speed we saw when we were out with Archie and the team. In the short video above, our videographer had tears streaming down his face at one point as well as being a bit wobbly on the toes, and the little fluffy windmuffler you can see on Archie’s lapel certainly earned its crust that morning!