Massive operation to reconnect customers continues following Storm Éowyn

A massive operation is continuing today to reconnect customers in our north of Scotland licence area in the wake of Storm Éowyn.  This storm was the worst to hit Scotland in many years, and considerable progress is being made as teams restore power.

We've got robust and long-established plans for serious storms like these, and the operation to restore connections is proceeding as planned.

As of 11.30am this morning, almost 70,000 of our customers have already been reconnected, and work is progressing to restore supplies to around 20,000 more.

The main areas affected are large parts of Argyll and the Kintyre peninsula, southern Perthshire and the Trossachs, broadly reflecting the area that was subject to the Met Office’s most severe Red Warning for wind on Friday, along with smaller pockets of customers in other areas across the north of Scotland. There are some complex faults to be addressed, particularly in the most affected locations, and this is expected to affect restoration times.  

Fixing the faults

A major operation took place overnight, with a specialist team from our sister network SSEN Transmission carrying out major works near Taynuilt to remove fallen trees from the transmission network. This was completed just before dawn, meaning around 10 thousand people in the Oban area were reconnected ahead of the scheduled restoration time.

Dozens more teams were mobilised first thing to assess the damage caused by yesterday’s storm and work on the network repairing faults at a number of key points. This operation will reconnect significant numbers of customers throughout the course of today and support subsequent reconnection efforts on more remote faults on the network in the days to come. Most of the damage caused was due to trees falling on overhead lines, and debris being picked up by the storm-force winds and then damaging the network.

Looking after our customers

A broad welfare operation is now supporting customers in communities where the reconnection operation is underway.  A number of vans serving free hot food and drink have been open since breakfast time; these vans are being deployed to communities awaiting reconnection and will be relocated to other areas once power is restored. Up-to-date information on the locations of these hot food vans can be found on our social media channels ( ‘Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ on Facebook, and ‘SSENCommunity’ on X, Instagram, and BlueSky. )

Arrangements are also being made with local businesses to provide hot food and drinks. Details of these locations will also be provided via social media.

SSEN’s Customer Contact Centre has spoken to over 10,000 customers, and a dedicated team is in touch with the most vulnerable in affected communities, to provide them with additional support. 

People from the British Red Cross and MERT Highland are helping our own teams visit more vulnerable customers to check in on their welfare, and we're working with Local Resilience Partnerships to open rest centres. Details of these will be also shared on social media.

As part of our support package, customers who will be 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. 

In addition, 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. Customers can claim this in the same way as food and drink.

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

“Éowyn was an exceptional storm, and our massive operation continues today to respond to the huge amount of damage it’s caused to the electricity network. We’re also doing a lot to look after our customers in affected communities while we fix the faults that have impacted their supplies.

“The repairs that need to be done are very considerable in the area that was covered by the Met Office Red Alert. The wind speeds have now finally dropped, allowing us to move further forward with this task through the night and since first light. The vastly increased teams we’ve deployed will get many more homes back on supply today, but in some cases, including in more remote areas, it will take a few days to fix all faults.

“Where work is already underway, we’ll inform people as soon as we can with a realistic estimate of when their lights are likely to go back on. I’d like to thank the customers we’re asking to wait a little longer for reconnection for their patience and understanding. And I’d encourage them and others awaiting reconnection to take up the extensive welfare provision we’ve put in place.”

📞 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.