More than 2,500 Aberdeen homes and Tesco supermarket affected by power cut

Disruption expected to continue to 5pm as engineers work to fix the fault.

By Lottie Hood

March 17 2023, 1:32 pm

Workmen were spotted digging at a site on Eday Road where five SSEN were parked. Image: Lottie Hood/ DC Thomson.

More than 2,500 homes in the Sheddocksley area of Aberdeen were left without power following an outage.

The power cut was first reported by residents at around 8.30am today.

It is thought around 2,500 homes and businesses in and around Springhill and Mastrick were impacted – including Tesco on Lang Stracht.

The lights were out in the supermarket and staff were turning people away. Image: Lottie Hood/ DC Thomson

Engineers were working hard on site for most the day and power was restored to the last 200 properties by 5pm.

Fresh food ruined by power cut

As a result of the outage, the Tesco was closed today with hopeful shoppers being turned away at the door and the car park being blocked by barriers.

It is understood a lot of fresh food has had to be thrown away as the supermarket struggled to keep products cold.

Nearby smaller businesses were also affected but most had their power restored at around 1pm.

Traffic lights on roads heading out of the city were also out.

Barriers have been put up to stop shoppers arriving at the Tesco. Image: Lottie Hood/DC Thomson

It is understood the outage was caused by a fault on one of the underground cables at SSEN‘s Springhill substation.

Five of the company’s vans and workmen were spotted digging at a site on Eday Road near Tesco.

A spokesman from the company said: “We’d like to apologise to our customers in and around the Springhill and Mastrick areas of Aberdeen for any inconvenience caused by today’s power cut, and assure them that our engineers are working hard to restore supplies as safely and as quickly as possible.”