Storm Arwen: Aberdeenshire and Moray residents warned they could be without power until Wednesday

By David Mackay

November 29 2021, 11:10 am

Fallen trees have caused "catastrophic" damage across the SSEN network. Photo: SSEN

Power firms have warned it could be Wednesday before electricity is restored to all the homes cut off by Storm Arwen.

Communities across Aberdeenshire and Moray are suffering a fourth day without supplies after 90mph winds swept the north-east.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has pulled crews from England to help with efforts to restore electricity to homes.

About 120,000 homes were cut off during the peak of the storm with 24,000 remaining without supplies on Monday afternoon.

SSEN say progress in restoring supplies was made in Alford and parts of Aboyne overnight between Sunday and Monday.

What is being done to restore power?

SSEN has been using helicopters through the weekend in order to assess the scale of damage to the power network.

However, the operator’s director of corporate affairs, Graham Keddie, has revealed crews are still discovering new damage as they work.

He told BBC Radio Scotland that teams were focusing on restoring supplies to larger communities to benefit as many people as possible – but warned it might be Wednesday before some individual homes or small clusters of properties have electricity restored.

Fallen trees and prolonged bad weather is still making access to faults difficult, but we have moved additional engineers and support staff into the areas most adversely affected to support restoration efforts.

Thank you for your patience as we work safely to restore supplies. pic.twitter.com/yJkGGPkqfT

— ssencommunity (@ssencommunity) November 28, 2021

He said: “We are going through systematically going the network transmission faults to get as many customers as possible back as soon as possible.

“We are then looking at lower voltage faults affecting single homes and groups of homes.

“We are expecting to make lots of progress on Monday, but for those single homes we are potentially looking at another two days.

“We are seeing most of the damage in Aberdeenshire where there were wind speeds in excess of 90mph, but there is also damage in Moray and parts of Angus.”

Where are SSEN teams currently working?

SSEN crews are currently working in the below locations. However, communities not listed should not expect power to be restored until Tuesday at the earliest.

The locations in Aberdeenshire are:

Braemar
Ballate
Kintore
Fyvie
Rothienorman
New Deer
Dyce
Methlick
Tarland
Blackburn
Forgue
Hatton
Cuminestown
Dunecht
St. Cyrus
Fettercairn

The locations in Moray are:

Duffus
Alvah
Deskford
Collieston
Boyndie
Dufftown

Mark Rough, director of customer operations at SSEN, explained work was being hampered with debris making it difficult to access areas where faults have been reported.

He said: “We continue to make good progress carrying out repairs and restoring power, with an additional 9,500 customer supplies restored overnight and into Monday morning.

You can also call us on 105. 📞

All of our contact centre teams are working as quickly as possible to respond to all customers.

Thank you for your continued patience and our sincerest apologies for the delays! pic.twitter.com/jQfZlnggmM

— ssencommunity (@ssencommunity) November 29, 2021

“We are committed to restoring power to as many customers today as possible, but given the complexity and scale of the situation some customers will continue to be without power overnight.

“The extent of damage means the repair work needed is complex and often requires lengthy clearance of access just to reach the problem areas, with substantial tree cutting and re-erection of overhead network infrastructure.”