Storm Otto cuts power to 43,000 homes in northern Scotland

Storm Otto brought sustained wind speeds in excess of 70mph and storm-force gusts of 85mph across the north east of Scotland from the early hours of Friday 17 February 2023, and SSEN Distribution has confirmed that power has now been restored to all 43,000 homes affected¹. The network operator said over 95% of those homes were reconnected within 24 hours¹.

SSEN's teams responded to over 200 high voltage faults and many more instances of damage on its high voltage network as a result of fallen trees, branches and other wind-blown debris¹. The main areas affected were in the North East, particularly Aberdeenshire and Moray¹. At the peak, around 750 field and support staff supported restoration efforts¹.

The restoration figures moved through the weekend as follows.

On the Friday evening SSEN listed the areas still affected as parts of Longside, Stuartfield, Peterhead, Cornhill, Oyne, Forgue, Tarland, Huntly, Old Rayne, Ellon, Banff, Turriff, Mintlaw, Maud, Old Deer and Insch and surrounding areas, rural Moray, and small pockets of customers across Caithness². By the Saturday morning the remaining faults were mainly concentrated in Aberdeenshire, including parts of Oyne, Banff, Methlick, Insch, Turriff, Belhelvie, Kennethmont, Gartly, Wardhouse, Huntly, Ellon, Glenmuick and Fyvie³. The final properties off supply on the Sunday morning were mainly single premises or small clusters of customers in rural locations across Aberdeenshire⁶.

Mark Rough, Operations Director at SSEN Distribution, said:

SSEN said its main network held up well to the conditions after additional network resilience and tree cutting activities, and that damage was less extensive on the core network than would be expected with this force of weather, which aided response and restoration times¹. The operator also said it had increased customer communication capacity and worked with local and national resilience partners to establish welfare provisions from day one¹.

Why it matters for households

The disruption was concentrated in Aberdeenshire and Moray, with rural premises and small clusters of customers the last to be reconnected¹. SSEN's welfare framework provided that customers off supply for more than 12 hours were entitled to £30 per person for every day without power to cover the cost of food and drink, with receipts to be retained and submitted once power was back on¹. Customers on SSEN's Priority Services Register were also entitled to reimbursement of hotel accommodation after their first night without power¹.

Under the regulated Guaranteed Standards of Performance, customers off supply for over 48 hours were entitled to £70, with a further £70 for every subsequent 12-hour period off supply; SSEN said customers did not need to contact it to request this, as the process is automatic¹. The operator asked anyone still off supply to call 105, as the fault might be very localised or an issue with the internal electrical supply¹. It also urged people not to approach damaged equipment and to report it on 105 or through its Power Track service⁴. SSEN described its priority services as free and open to customers who 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, are over 60, or temporarily need extra support⁴. Households can read our guides to power cuts, to how long restoration takes, to storms and the electricity network and to the Priority Services Register.

What happens next

SSEN said its focus had turned to repairing remedial damage, with teams continuing work on the network in the coming days to restore it to full operation, and that it would try to minimise any planned interruptions but would give advance notice if power needed to be turned off for a short period¹. Compensation was to be processed automatically in the weeks after the event, with direct communication to follow¹.