Work is continuing in Shetland to restore power to thousands of homes after electrical infrastructure was damaged by heavy snow.
SSEN, the island’s main energy supplier, deployed 15 crews totalling 125 engineers to tackle the power outage.
Additional crews arrived from the mainland this morning alongside lorries of electricity poles and overhead lines.
More than 2,400 homes still remain without power in areas such as Voe, Whalsay, Brae, Yell and the West Mainland.
Since the arrival of SSEN’s engineers by ferry early yesterday morning, around 400 homes have been reconnected.
Work yesterday mainly focused on the “backbone” of the network before moving on to reconnecting individual communities including miles of power lines.
Resilience Minister Keith Brown vested the island today and said the efforts of the engineers was “really quite striking”.
‘Worst Shetland weather since 1995’
A helicopter was in the air for most of yesterday, carrying out line surveys to assess the extent of the damage.
More work remains to be done with SSEN suggesting the power issues will not be fully resolved until the weekend.
In the west mainland and parts of Voe, large-scale mobile generation sets are being connected to restore power.
Broadcaster Tom Morton, who is a Labour councillor in Shetland, told BBC’s Good Morning Scotland it was “the worst weather storm” since 1995.
Mr Morton says the impact of the snow on the island’s infrastructure has been “catastrophic”.
He said: “In our house, we’ve been without power since Monday afternoon and I don’t expect it to be restored until the weekend.”
Help available in Shetland
Other residents are escaping their cold homes and heading to places where they can get some heat including several warm hubs set up across Shetland.
- Walls Public Hall – open 24 hours to provide hot drinks and a warm hub.
- Symbister Hall – open from 10am until 7pm.
- South Nesting Hall – open from 10am until dark.
- Burravoe Public Hall – open from 12pm until 8pm.
- North Ness Public Hall – open from 9am until 7pm.
- Bixter Hall – open from 10am until 6pm.
- Isbister Public Hall – open 24 hours.
- Skeld Hall – open 12pm until 8pm.
- Aith Public Hall
- Speldiburn Community Cafe – open 24 hours.
- St Magnus Bay Hotel – open 24 hours.
- Tingwall Hall
- Whiteness and Weisdale Hall – open on request.
- RNLI Aith Lifeboat – open on request.
- Mossbank Public Hall – open on request.
Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland, spoke to BBC’s Good Morning Scotland and said engineers were “digging in and getting on” with the work.
He said local organisations working with Shetland Islands Council are identifying and supporting the most vulnerable people and helping them.
Shetland’s geography with many small islands and single-track roads is understood to be hampering efforts by engineers to restore power.
A huge thanks to the individuals, community organisations and local businesses who have stepped in to support the response and look after their friends and neighbours during ongoing severe weather and power outages. #CommunitySpirit #NotAllHerosWearCapes https://t.co/DhBcj7cuFm
— Shetland Islands Council (@ShetIslandsCll) December 15, 2022
Mr Carmichael said: “I’ve never known it to be this bad, the speak in the community is bad snow in 1995 brought a similar sort of event.
“People tend to plan ahead because these things are not unknown. We have more people with generators than in other parts of the country.
“At the moment, the priority is making sure we have got as much resource there restoring the power as possible.”
Customers are entitled to claim up to £30 per person for every 24 hours they are without power.
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