3500 homes still without electricity after Storm Isha power cuts – and some will remain blacked out overnight
Thousands of homes across Scotland were still without power at 5pm on Monday evening following overnight outages caused by Storm Isha.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) revealed the figure after working through the night and Monday itself to restore electricity to tens of thousands of affected homes and businesses.
At the peak of the disruption around 36,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity.
Around 3500 of those were still off the grid by 5pm – of which more than 1100 were in the Highlands.
- Related: Power cut hot food and drink support set up in Strathglass amid ongoing Storm Isha impact
- Related: Storm Jocelyn will spark second rail network shutdown on Tuesday, warns Network Rail Scotland
- Related: Road and rail lines in Highlands affected following Storm Isha as another weather warning issued
SSEN has warned that the scale of the damage and challenges getting to some of the affected locations mean that some properties will remain without power overnight.
Customers who are without electricity 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.
The latest update came shortly after SSEN confirmed that it had set up two hot food and drink support hubs in response to the ongoing blackout – one of which is based at Cannich in Strathglass. The other is in Strathyre, Balquhidder.
SSEN added that customers on its Priority Services Register will also be offered additional support if they are likely to be without power overnight. During the course of today, SSE said its customer contact centre team had been in direct contact with more than 6000 people to offer help, information, and support.
Andy Smith, Operations Director at SSEN Distribution, said: "This was a severe and unpredictable storm and we scaled-up our response significantly to meet the challenge it posed.”
"From first thing this morning, our teams have been carrying out line patrols to assess the full extent of damage to the network. This work has continued throughout the day, and we have updated many customers with their estimated restoration times. The latest information is being displayed on our Power Track app.”
“I’d like to reassure everyone we are doing everything we can to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. We’re working closely with resilience partners to support our customers’ welfare. I’d also encourage anyone who may need additional support to contact our dedicated teams on our power cut helpline, 105.
“We are also aware that Storm Jocelyn is expected to cause disruption tomorrow, so we’re watching its path carefully and are ready to respond to any issues it might cause on our network.”
The number of homes and businesses still without power at 5pm on Monday were as follows:
- Argyll and West Highland – 941
- Highlands – 1131
- North East – 299
- Tayside & Central – 1017
