More than 500 homes without power after electricity cut hits Highland communities

Hundreds of homes in the Great Glen and Wester Ross were without electricity this afternoon after a power cut hit the local network.

Around 330 properties in an area that includes Kinlochewe, Torridon, the northern shores of Loch Torridon, parts of Loch Maree and Loch Ewe, were hit by a power cut at around 10.02am on Thursday.

Almost 80 homes were also reported to be without power in parts of the Great Glen centred around Invermoriston. That outage occurred at around 10.44am.

And a third power cut, affecting almost 100 homes, also struck an area extending from Roy Bridge to Dalwhinnie and northwards into the Creag Meagaidh nature reserve. This outage occurred at 1.29pm.

There were strong winds in the west and northern Highland areas on Thursday, although it is not known if they played a role in the outages.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said its engineers were on site at all three outages and that they hoped to restore power to the first two by 3.30pm, with the Dalwhinnie and Roy Bridge power cut earmarked for a 5pm restoration time. These times could vary depending on how well work proceeds.

A spokesperson for SSEN, commenting on the Wester Ross outage, said: "We're very sorry for the power cut and are aware of a fault on our main network affecting 330 homes. This is affecting a large area and it's likely several streets in your area are affected by the same outage.

"The cause of this power cut is a fault on our network. This is the most common type of fault we see and our teams are very experienced in dealing with these issues.

"In most cases, our engineers are able to restore power by simply replacing a fuse at the local substation, however, if the fault is severe, this may result in us needing to make full repairs which can take longer. If this does happen, we will let you know.

"If you need more information, please send us a message on Facebook or call us on 105 and quote 'reference NP2395'."

Those wishing to receive updates on the Invermoriston and Dalwhinnie outages should quote references NP2233 and NP2495 respectively

Another power cut – this one planned – was also affecting an area around Shieldaig and northern Applecross at the time of writing. It is not known if this latter outage – which began at 9am and is expected to be restored by 4pm – is connected to the unplanned power cut affecting nearby Wester Ross communities.

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