All power restored after SSEN re-connects 5,289 properties
SIX DAYS after more than 5,000 homes and businesses lost their electricity supply due to heavy snow fall and icing, power has been restored all those affected.
Electricity network company SSEN Distribution announced on Sunday afternoon that the final 24 customers had their power reconnected at 4pm.
Since Monday evening SSEN engineers have been working on restoring supplies to a total of 5,289 properties.
In doing so, around 160 SSEN engineers plus crews from a number of contracted companies had to rebuild large parts of Shetland’s power network.
A significant part of the repairs has been temporary, meaning that work to make repairs permeant and also to prevent further power cuts will continue over coming days and weeks.
Head of region at SSEN Distribution Mark Macdonald said: “On behalf of everyone at SSEN, I’d like to thank customers and communities for their patience as our teams battled to restore supplies and assist the welfare effort.
“We recognise it was a difficult time for many, and this helped drive our teams to restore power as quickly as possible.
“The scale of ice-loading on our network from Monday’s storm brought comparisons of when the ‘Big Snaa’ hit Shetland in 1995, with many of our teams and residents saying the scale of damage this time was even worse.
“I’m immensely proud of the teams for their dedication and commitment in overcoming significant engineering challenges and getting the job done.
“It’s clear that the sense of community in Shetland is very special, with local groups coming together to provide welfare where it was needed and help keep people warm and fed.
“This extends to the excellent coordinating role played by Shetland Islands Council, Police Scotland and all organisations in the Local Resilience Partnership, of which SSEN was proud to play our part.
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“We’re also very grateful to residents who have taken the time to thank our line crews and welfare support teams and also to the businesses and community volunteers who gave up their own time to help feed our teams. This lifted spirits during some very tough conditions.”
Macdonald said that SSEN teams would continue to work on the network in the coming days to restore normal operation.
In doing this, SSEN said it would try to minimise the need for any planned interruptions, but where this becomes necessary affected households would be informed in advance.
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