Cattle cause power cut in north-east town

A herd of cattle caused a power outage for more than 400 properties in a north-east town this morning.

Some cows rubbed themselves on a stay wire in a field this morning at about 7.19am which caused 437 customers in Ellon to lose electricity.

The cattle caused a vibration up the electricity pole and made the conductors at the top clash.

This made a fuse blow, which took the customers off supply.

However, this problem was fixed just under an hour later, with power restored by 8.08am.

SSEN engineers replaced the fuse and put cattle guards on the stay wires.

An SSEN spokeswoman added: “In an unrelated incident, but also affecting AB41 postcodes, at 9.05am a fuse blew which took 30 customers off supply.

“The suspected cause is a cable fault and our engineers are still in the area, identifying the source of the problem.

“In the meantime, they have put all customers onto mobile generators so their power was restored at 12.05.”