Power restored to all homes after six days

SSEN engineers and line crews have now restored power to all 5,289 homes impacted by the extreme snow and ice storm that hit last Monday.

The final 24 homes in Vementry, Grobsness, Brechin and Watsness were connected at 4pm this afternoon (Sunday) following six days of intensive work by a 160-strong field operations team, bolstered by additional line crews from contract partners and network operators, including Keltbray, SP Energy Networks and Northern Powergrid.

SSEN said they will continue to make permanent repairs to bring the network to full operation and prevent further power cuts.

This may require temporary planned disconnections for short periods. Customers will be notified of these in advance, wherever possible. This is necessary to reconnect customers who are still without power to the main network following offline repairs.

SSE is asking if there are any customers who remain without power to contact them on 105 to report this, as it may be a very localised fault or an issue with an internal electrical supply.

Mark Macdonald, Head of Region at SSEN Distribution, said: “On behalf of everyone at SSEN, I’d like to thank customers and communities for their patience as our teams battled to restore supplies and assist the welfare effort. We recognise it was a difficult time for many, and this helped drive our teams to restore power as quickly as possible.

“The scale of ice-loading on our network from Monday’s storm brought comparisons of when the ‘Big Snaa’ hit Shetland in 1995, with many of our teams and residents saying the scale of damage this time was even worse.  I’m immensely proud of the teams for their dedication and commitment in overcoming significant engineering challenges and getting the job done.

“It’s clear that the sense of community in Shetland is very special, with local groups coming together to provide welfare where it was needed and help keep people warm and fed. This extends to the excellent coordinating role played by Shetland Islands Council, Police Scotland and all organisations in the Local Resilience Partnership, of which SSEN was proud to play our part.

“We’re also very grateful to residents who have taken the time to thank our line crews and welfare support teams and also to the businesses and community volunteers who gave up their own time to help feed our teams. This lifted spirits during some very tough conditions.

“Our teams will continue to work on the network in the coming days to restore its normal resilient operation. In doing this, we will try to minimise the need for any planned interruptions, but if we do need to turn off your power for a short period, we’ll let you know in advance.”

Due to the extent of the damage and travel challenges, SSEN said enacting the restoration plan involved a significant logistical effort and thanks had to go to travel partners, particularly NorthLink Ferries, for keeping teams moving and to RJ McLeod and many local shops, restaurants, and hotels for helping ensure line crews were well fed and rested.

Credit was also given to mobile generation partner, DH Marine, who helped to generate 20 warm hubs, with PDG Aviation who provided vital assistance from the skies.