Thousands of homes and businesses across the north-east were hit by a major power cut yesterday afternoon.
More than 3,600 people in Peterculter, Milltimber and Drumoak were without electricity from around 2pm, while SSE engineers battled to restore power to the area.
Last night, a garden centre manager said he was forced to turn away hundreds of customers after the power outage, which occurred during one of their busiest periods.
Craig Forbes, manager of the Mains of Drum Garden Centre in Drumoak, said: “All the power went out at about 2.10pm and we had to stop trading and get everybody out – it lasted for about 45 minutes.
“We lost a lot of business and our customers were very frustrated – it was the worst time it could have happened, between 2pm-4pm is our busiest time.
“There was a bit of panic when we thought it might be out for the full day.”
Business at the neighbouring Drum Castle, a popular tourist destination, was also affected as staff were forced to close the building due to health and safety concerns.
Kris Bruce, senior assistant for functions and events, added: “We had our wedding open day taking place today, and we did have a period where we thought we wouldn’t be able to invite anybody in.
“But thankfully, we were able to take them to the outside areas, and show them around.
“From a general visitor point of view, we have managed to let most people in.
“It was about half an hour with the power out, so it wasn’t too bad, it’s just one of these things – we still had a good turn-out.
“There was maybe 60-80 people in the castle when it happened and we had to ask them to leave and restrict access to the building temporarily.
“But the positive was it meant some of our suppliers who have stalls outside got to take advantage of the situation, with more potential customers.”
SSE engineers managed to restore power to the affected areas by 3.45pm.
Last night, a spokesman confirmed the company was still working to establish what had caused the power cut in the first place.