An update on our response to Storm Éowyn

​The exceptionally strong winds brought by Storm Éowyn are affecting power supplies across Scotland, including in our own north of Scotland network area. Around 10 thousand of our customers who lost power earlier on Friday have already been reconnected, and resources are in place to respond as further faults occur.

As of 12:30pm today, supplies have been restored to 9,660 customers, with 15,771 currently without power. Storm-force winds are forecast well into the evening and overnight, and it’s anticipated these will continue to have an impact on the network.

Our teams are already working hard to restore supplies to customers - including through remote switching, which transfers many customers’ supplies to an unaffected circuit.  However, exceptional wind speeds and challenging conditions mean it may take some time for engineers to be able to safely work on affected parts of the network.

Our response in detail 

We've brought in additional teams and contractors and based them in the areas affected by the storm. The size of the response team is now at least 10 times the usual level. These resources are being deployed across the network to help support customers in the following ways:   

• Extra operators are in the control room, to reroute the network around faults that may occur. In many cases, this can be done relatively quickly, meaning briefer interruptions to supplies. 

• More engineers are in place across the network where the impact is greatest; they’ll fix faults as safely and as quickly as they can.

• Crews from SSEN’s sister network area in central southern England are also on their way to support the response.

• Teams in SSEN’s customer contact centre have been bolstered significantly, to handle an increase in the volume of calls coming in from customers, and to respond to messages sent in via social media. 

• Additional tree-cutting teams are being deployed to assist engineers in accessing faults on the network; the high winds mean many trees are coming down, and this is causing access issues for SSEN’s teams and other essential services. 

• Text messages have been sent to almost 170,000 more vulnerable customers in the north of Scotland, giving them help and advice on how to prepare in the event they lose power. Telephone calls have also been made to the most vulnerable in worst-hit areas, to offer additional support. 

The severity of the storm 

Storm Éowyn is bringing wind gusts of up to 100mph on exposed coasts and hills in western areas. Wind speeds of almost 90mph have been recorded on Islay and in Machrihanish. The ferocity of these wind gusts means damage to the electricity infrastructure is occurring. Wind gusts will remain high, both inland and along the coast, throughout the evening and into Saturday morning when the weather pattern begins to move out of SSEN’s network area.

SSEN is constantly monitoring the storm and its path, to ensure resources are where they need to be.

SSEN’s Director of Customer Operations for the north of Scotland, Andy Smith, says: 

 “Storm Éowyn is proving to be exceptional, with wind gusts the like of which we’ve not seen in Scotland for many years. We’d been monitoring the storm for several days and took pre-emptive steps to move extra teams to the places that are being affected by the impact of this particularly severe weather.

“These are particularly strong wind gusts, reaching over 90mph in places, and they’re already causing damage and disruption. These extreme conditions are limiting our ability to get to fault locations at the moment, but I want to reassure our customers that we’ve planned for this and have the right resources in the right places so we can start repairing any damage to the network and restoring supplies as soon as it’s safe to do so.

“The scale of what’s unfolding today means reconnecting everyone will take some time, and I’m grateful to customers for their patience and understanding while we do this.”

📞 Help and advice

If you see any damage to our equipment, please stay back, don’t touch it and instead report it to us directly by calling 105, or via our Power Track Website, and engineers will investigate as soon as possible.

Customers are also being encouraged to be prepared for the possibility of disruption to supplies by:

• Saving the emergency power cut number - '105' - to your phone to report any loss of supply or damage to the electricity network
• Visiting our Power Track Website to give you details of power cuts and restoration times. You can also report power cuts and network damage through Power Track.
• Visiting the "Preparing for a power cut" section on our website, where there is a wealth of advice and information, or to chat live to one of our advisors via the Webchat service

Customers are also eligible for our Priority Services Register (PSR) if they:

• Are deaf or hard of hearing
• Have a disability
• Live with children under five
• Are blind or partially-sighted
• Have a chronic illness
• Use medical equipment/aids reliant on electricity
• Are over 60.

To find out more about the PSR, click here or call 0800 294 3259.