Just 118 homes left without power on Shetland as reconnection expected on Sunday

Just 118 homes on Shetland remain without power after this week’s cold weather, engineers have said, with full reconnection expected on Sunday.

Temperatures as low as minus 17.3C were recorded in Scotland this week and a major incident declared on the islands, after thousands of homes were left without electricity when heavy snow downed power lines.

Dozens of engineers were sent to Shetland to fix the problem, with just 24 homes still to be fixed as of 9.30am on Sunday, according to Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution.

Barring no unforeseen challenges, we’re confident we can restore power to all remaining properties by Sunday afternoon

But 94 homes, SSEN has said, are without power due to a secondary fault, which caused outages on Saturday.

Engineers have made good progress over the weekend, with the number of homes without power dropping from 350 on Saturday.

Barring unforeseen circumstances SSEN Distribution has said, full power should be restored by Sunday.

Mark Macdonald, the head of region at SSEN Distribution, said: “Our teams will continue to work throughout the evening and will be back out at first light tomorrow to push on with the final restoration effort.

“Barring no unforeseen challenges, we’re confident we can restore power to all remaining properties by Sunday afternoon.

“We understand the challenges communities are facing after days without power and would like to thank Shetland Islands Council, our resilience partners and local communities for their ongoing support in coordinating warm hubs for local residents.

“We’re proactively calling all customers without power to check on their welfare and would urge anyone who needs support to call us on 105.”