North MSP Meets SSEPD over Massive Power Outage

12th May 2014

Highlands and Islands (Scottish Labour) MSP David Stewart has received assurances from SSEPD (Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution) following the April power cut outage which affected more than 200,000 properties at the height of the disruption affecting the North of Scotland which included Fort William, Moray, Caithness, Orkney and the Western Isles.

David Stewart MSP was quick to seek answers and an explanation regarding the cause of the unprecedented outage from SSEPD and met with officials from the company in the following days.

Following in-depth investigations, SSEPD identified a faulty piece of equipment at Knocknagael grid substation near Inverness which it believes to be the cause of the outage. Safety mechanisms activated when the fault occurred, causing the main network circuit breakers to open, protecting the grid system supplying the north and west Highlands. SSEPD has taken action to ensure this issue does not recur on its network. This includes making alterations to the network protection arrangements in key parts of the system.

Mr Stewart said:“This was an unprecedented power outage which affected nearly the entire Highlands and Islands region and I was quick to raise the issue both with the First Minister in the Scottish Parliament as well as the network operators SSEPD.

“Initially I was very concerned about the potential accidents that could have happened during the time the power was out and I had major concerns regarding the impact the prolonged outage would have on businesses and vulnerable members of our communities who were left in their homes without heat or light in some cases for up to four hours.

“Following discussions with SSEPD, I am confident that they have addressed the situation satisfactorily and are now in a position to make sure such wide ranging power outage does not happen again.”

SSEPD's Director of Transmission Operations, Peter Dale, said: "Our transmission network is reliable over 99.9% of the time, but on the rare occasion that a fault occurs our first priority will always be to restore power as safely and as quickly as possible while keeping customers updated on our progress. Having now identified the cause of the fault we have taken the necessary steps to ensure it is not repeated. We would like to thank customers once again for their patience and apologise for any inconvenience caused while we restored electricity supplies to affected homes and businesses in the north of Scotland."