Due to the impact of Storm Arwen, electrical power in some areas of the north-east has still not been restored after almost 40 hours with more waiting to come.
At the peak of the power outage which occurred on Friday, November 26, almost 110,000 residents were left without any power at all.
Scottish and Southern Electrical Network (SSEN) which provides the majority of power to the north-east dispatched over 500 staff to help fix the damage caused by strong winds.
While power has been restored to over 63,000, around 50,000 in Aberdeenshire and the north-east still remain without power.
Areas still affected include Ballater, Braemar, Aboyne, Strathdon, Kemnay and Whitehouse which has experienced multiple instances of damage on a single circuit, including 10 damaged poles as a result of tree damage.
Power to be restored by 6 pm.
SSEN are also still at a red alert status as staff work through the night to repair the damage.
If you come across a part of our network that has been damaged by fallen trees or debris, please do not approach it or try to move it. Instead let us know by dialing 105 or reporting it through our #PowerTrack App and we’ll send an engineer as soon as possible to investigate. pic.twitter.com/rXwh76RpbI
— ssencommunity (@ssencommunity) November 27, 2021
While patrolling for damage to the network, SSEN engineers have found significant damage to the electrical grid requiring more time to resolve before the power can be restored.
While originally aiming to have the power restored across the network by 10 pm on Saturday, this has now been pushed back to 6 pm on Sunday, November 28.
The following welfare facilities have been established to support those customers who remain off supply, with hot food and drinks served for breakfast from 7 am:
- Cullen, beachfront
- Keith, Curry Contractors Yard (outskirts of Keith)
- Kintore, in the square
- Turriff, Tesco car park
- Tarland, in the square
Additional supplies of diesel are being distributed to care homes, sheltered housing complexes and community hospitals throughout the region who are reliant on back-up generators.
This will ensure that some operations including heating and cooking for some of the most vulnerable in the community can continue until the power is restored.
The British Red Cross has also stepped up to check up on local vulnerable residents, lending support to the Health and Social Care Partnership and NHS Grampian.
Mark Rough, Director of Customer Operations at SSEN, said: “We continue to liaise closely with local resilience partners to co-ordinate support, particularly to those on our Priority Service Register, as we enact established resilience plans and provide welfare support to the communities who will remain off supply.”
To follow live updates from the SSEN power track click here.