Huge effort to reconnect customers continues after Storm Éowyn

After almost 30 thousand households in the north of Scotland were reconnected on Saturday, the huge effort to restore power supplies and support customers in the wake of Storm Éowyn is making continued good progress today.

As of 5pm on Sunday, almost 88,000 customers have been reconnected since the arrival of Storm Éowyn. The work to restore supplies to around 4,700 more is continuing, particularly in Argyll, Kintyre, and on island communities. This reflects the area covered by Friday’s Met Office Red Warning for wind.  

Several hundred engineers are once again out on the network and making major repairs to overhead lines. The damage caused by this extreme storm is acute, and in a number of areas, parts of the network are having to be rebuilt.

Access to such sites remains challenging, because of the local topography, and the number of fallen trees blocking access tracks. Specialist teams and equipment are being deployed to overcome these obstacles, and helicopters are aiding the inspection of damaged power lines from above.

When people can expect to be reconnected

We’ve provided customers with realistic updates on when they can expect their supplies to be restored. These are now being further informed by a detailed assessment of the faults and the time it’s taking to complete each job safely, and the time provided could come forward.

The current estimation is that nearly all customers who lost supplies because of the storm will be reconnected before the end of tomorrow (Monday). Anyone still awaiting reconnection and who can’t see their fault listed on SSEN’s PowerTrack app or website should contact 105 to ensure this is brought to our attention.

Support for our customers

While the huge operation to fix faults and reconnect supplies continues, we're providing warm spaces, hot meals and drinks to people in several communities.

Thousands of meals have already been served, and outlets will be open during the rest of the day and over dinner time.

Up-to-date information on the locations and precise opening times is being posted on our social media channels. (‘Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ on Facebook, and ‘SSENCommunity’ on X, Instagram, and BlueSky.

Our Customer Centre team has handled more than 23,000 contacts from customers via phone, WhatsApp or social media since the storm began, while the online power cut tracking service, ‘Power Track’, has had more than 370,000 visits.

The call-handling team was bolstered prior to Éowyn arriving, meaning that on average, calls were answered in well under one minute.  As part of SSEN’s support package, customers without power for more than 12 hours are entitled to £30 per person for every day without power, to cover the cost of food and drink. People should keep hold of their receipts and claim costs back at www.ssen.co.uk/stormclaim. 

Customers on our Priority Service Register can claim reasonable costs for alternative accommodation if they’re without power for over 24 hours. Support with booking accommodation can be provided if needed. If a power cut is estimated to last beyond 48 hours, all customers can benefit from this support. People can claim this in the same way as food and drink.

Customers who experienced a power cut due to this storm may be entitled to compensation. As set by Ofgem’s Guaranteed Standards, Éowyn’s severity means that customers who have been without power for more than 48 hours will be entitled to £85 compensation, and a further £40 for every additional 6 hours past this point. Customers don’t need to claim for this or contact SSEN; it will be issued automatically in the coming weeks.

More information is available at www.ssen.co.uk/stormsupport.

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

“I’m very grateful to our customers for their understanding and patience while we’ve mounted a huge response to this particularly damaging storm in very challenging conditions. Our work to reconnect customers is going to plan, and some people may have seen their power back on sooner than expected. We’re focused on getting the remaining repairs done, and everyone reconnected as safely and as quickly as we can.   

“We’re providing customers with estimations of when their supplies will be restored that are as realistic and accurate as possible, and I hope people take us up on the offer of free hot meals we’re laying on in several communities - and the other support we can provide - while restoration work continues.

“Several hundred engineers are working hard right now to fix faults safely and quickly, and we’ve had a group arrive from the southeast of England this morning to support our own response. I’d like to thank our own teams, and those of our contract partners for their hard work and support over the past few days.”  

📞 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.