UPDATE: Thousands of homes and businesses in north of Scotland without electricity as power cuts stretch up the Great Glen to Inverness
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Engineers are still battling to restore power to thousands of north of Scotland homes and businesses – including hundreds near Inverness and down through the Great Glen.
With Storm Gerrit battering Scotland, around 10,500 customers in the Highlands and other parts of the north are still waiting to be reconnected.
But energy firm SSEN Distribution says it has worked flat out all day to restore power to 9000 customers in the area so far.
High winds, heavy rain and snow have hit the area hard today with major disruption to transport networks.
Several hundred properties between Moy and the outskirts of Inverness at Milton of Leys and Westhill lost power with work said to still be continuing to fix faults and breakages.
Power was lost this morning across a swathe of land from Fort Augustus to beyond Drumnadrochit, but has since been mostly restored.
Power cuts then followed on the opposite, southern side of Loch Ness from Fort Augustus, and work continues at several locations.
An SSEN spokesman said: “As of 13:45 this afternoon, SSEN Distribution has restored supplies to just over 9,000 customers across northern Scotland whose connections have been affected by Storm Gerrit this morning.
“Our engineers and operational teams are working to reconnect around 10,500 more customers who are currently without power.
“We are working hard to do this as quickly and safely as possible in what are very challenging operational conditions given today’s severe weather.”
