Highlands bracing for power cuts, with 16,000 homes already affected in Scotland, says Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN)
Almost 16,000 homes in Scotland were already without power at lunchtime on Friday - with Storm Éowyn’s strongest winds only just beginning to make their way into some parts of the country.
Around 9600 other properties have also had their power restored already by engineers for Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN),, it revealed in its latest update.
But the combined total of more than 25,000 is dwarfed by the impact the storm has so far had in Northern Ireland, where almost a quarter of a million people were without power as a result of the extreme gales.
However, with the storm now moving further into Scotland, additional power outages are expected here in the coming hours.
A red ‘danger-to-life’ warning remained in place across the central belt and south-west Scotland at the time of writing, while an amber warning for gusts of up to 90mph had only just come into force across the Highlands and Moray.
It will stay in place until 6am on Saturday, and the far north is expected to experience its strongest winds later today and overnight.
Storm Éowyn has been bringing wind gusts of up to 100mph on exposed coasts and hills in western areas of Scotland. Wind speeds of almost 90mph have been recorded on Islay and in Machrihanish. Earlier today a gust of 114mph was even recorded on the west coast of Ireland - its highest recorded wind gust since the remnants of a hurricane struck in 1961.
SSEN has warned that the sheer scale of the disruption, and of that still to come, means it may take considerable time to restore power to all those who already are, or will be, affected.
SSEN’s director of customer operations for the north of Scotland, Andy Smith, said: “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.”
SSEN stepped up its preparedness ahead of the storm’s arrival, including bringing in additional teams to increase its response team to at least 10 times its usual level.
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.
Additional tree-cutting teams are being deployed to assist engineers in accessing faults on the network caused by fallen vegetation.
And 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.
SSEN has urged people to report any damage to its network, but to stay well clear of it for their own safety. You can report damage or faults by calling 105 or visiting its Powetrack website.
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 SSEN’s Powertrack website to give you details of power cuts and restoration times. You can also report power cuts and network damage through Powertrack.
• Visiting the "Preparing for a power cut" section on SSEN’s website, where there is a wealth of advice and information, or to chat live to one of its advisors via the webchat service.
Customers are also eligible for SSEN’s 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.