After a weekend of storms, the amber alert in Scotland has finished but many households are still waiting for their power to be turned back on.
As many as 115,847 households lost their connection to power due to Storm Malik and Storm Corrie.
While power companies are working fast to reconnect the majority of them by tomorrow, they admit there may be some outages going into Wednesday.
To help co-ordinate the response to disruption caused by the storms, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has chaired another meeting of the Scottish Government’s Resilience Room (SGoRR).
Both storms have caused a lot of damage and disruption to roads, homes and schools, with many in Aberdeenshire having to close their doors for yet another day.
Storm Malik caused the death of two people, one of whom has been named as a local resident in Aberdeen.
A yellow weather warning is still in place for Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Highlands for Tuesday due to high winds.
‘An improving situation’
Despite the continued outages and winds, things are said to be improving.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “Today we have seen an improving situation across Scotland following the two very serious storms over the weekend.
“The power companies have drafted in a large number of additional engineers and are making significant inroads into reconnecting customers, with work continuing at pace this evening.
“I want to thank all those who are working in difficult conditions to keep people safe and maintain our lifeline services.”
Companies are working to restore power to 7,000 homes this evening, after the stormy weather left thousands of residents reliant on welfare hubs for hot food.
Mr Swinney encouraged the many people who will face another night without power to seek support to find alternative accommodation. Those who have found somewhere else to stay can seek reimbursement from their suppliers.
He added: “Special arrangements remain in place for vulnerable customers and local resilience partnerships continue to work together to provide welfare support.”
Wind power record broken following storm
Meanwhile, Storm Malik broke records on the weekend.
The National Grid announced a new UK record was set on Saturday afternoon after Storm Malik produced 19.6 GW of wind-generated power on the system. The previous record was set in May last year at 17.7 GW.
A spokesperson for the National Grid ESO said: “Britain has the fastest decarbonising electricity system in the world and records like this are proof of how far we’ve come.
“By 2025 we want to be able to operate a zero carbon grid, harnessing clean green energy sources.
“However, while we mark this moment, our thoughts are with those communities who have been impacted by the storms over the weekend.”
