SSEN texts over 100,000 vulnerable customers ahead of Storm Floris

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said on 4 August 2025 that it had mounted a large response ahead of Storm Floris, which was moving across Scotland, and had sent text messages with help and advice to over 100,000 of its more vulnerable customers¹. Individual telephone calls were made on Sunday to the most vulnerable people in the areas expected to be worst hit, with offers of further, tailored support¹.

The Met Office had upgraded its warnings. An Amber Weather Warning for Wind was in place from 1000 to 2300 that day for most of Scotland, with a lesser Yellow Wind Warning for the whole country due to remain in place until the end of the night¹. A separate Yellow Wind Warning for Orkney and Shetland was in place from midnight on Tuesday through to 0800¹.

SSEN said projected wind gust speeds had increased and could now be as high as 100mph in exposed areas¹. It named the areas likely to see the strongest winds, and said Aberdeenshire could experience sustained storm-force winds overnight into the early hours of Tuesday¹.

Several hundred extra team members were involved in the response, planned network maintenance was cancelled so repairs could be prioritised, and additional tree-cutting teams were ready to help engineers reach faults¹. SSEN said trees in full leaf were at greater risk in the high winds, with the potential to cause access issues for itself and other critical services¹.

Andy Smith, SSEN's Director of Customer Operations for the north of Scotland, said the operation was comparable in size to those mounted when a storm hits in winter, and asked customers to report faults by calling 105 at any time, or via the PowerTrack website or app¹.

Why it matters for households

Households across most of Scotland were within the Amber warning area on Monday, with the strongest winds forecast for Argyll, the Highlands, the Western Isles, Perthshire, Angus, Moray and Aberdeenshire, and disruption to electricity supplies expected¹. SSEN said its messages to vulnerable customers covered how to prepare in case they lose power for a time¹. It encouraged customers to save the emergency power cut number, 105, to report a loss of supply or damage to the network, and to use its PowerTrack map for details of power cuts and restoration times¹. It asked anyone who sees damage to its equipment to stay back, not touch it, and report it¹.

SSEN said customers are eligible for its free Priority Services Register if they are deaf or hard of hearing, have a disability, live with children under five, are blind or partially sighted, have a chronic illness, use medical equipment or aids reliant on electricity, or are over 60¹. Registration can be made online or by calling 0800 294 3259¹. Households can read our guides on extra help in an emergency for older, disabled and medically dependent households and on extra support from networks and suppliers for vulnerable households, and on how phone and broadband networks respond to storms and outages.

What happens next

The Amber warning was due to end at 2300 on Monday, with the Yellow warning for the whole country remaining until the end of the night and the Orkney and Shetland warning running to 0800 on Tuesday¹. SSEN said field engineers would fix faults as quickly as possible once it was safe to do so¹. No estimate of the number of properties that might lose power has been reported¹.