SSEN Distribution moved to Weather Warning status on 18 December 2023 ahead of a period of strong winds forecast across northern Scotland on Thursday, the network operator said1. The Met Office issued a Yellow Weather Warning for Thursday1.
SSEN's weather model showed a low-pressure system moving through the North Sea between Shetland and Iceland, bringing strong winds across northern Scotland from the early hours of Thursday morning1. A separate SSEN notice published on 19 December, when the operator moved to Yellow Alert status, gave forecast gusts of up to 75 mph in the Northern and Western Isles in the early hours of Thursday, 65 mph in places on the north west, Caithness and the Argyll coast, and 60 to 70 mph across much of Scotland at 6am2. The Met Office yellow warning was in place for Thursday2.
The operator said it was activating contingency plans and standing up additional teams to deal with any damage to the network and subsequent faults that may affect customers' power supplies1.
"SSEN is activating its well-rehearsed contingency plans and is standing up additional teams to deal with any damage to the network and subsequent faults, which may impact customers' power supplies."
SSEN said its customer service team was telephoning the most vulnerable customers and had already contacted nearly 200,000 vulnerable customers by text message2. Customers are eligible for the 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. SSEN said all its priority services are free2. The register can be reached on 0800 294 32591.
Damage to equipment should be reported by calling 105 or through the Power Track website, and engineers will investigate as soon as possible1. Power Track also gives details of power cuts and restoration times1.
Why it matters for households
A Weather Warning status is the point at which a distribution network operator moves staff and contractors into position before forecast damage occurs, rather than after. For a household, the practical exposure is the same either way: overhead lines in exposed parts of northern Scotland are vulnerable to wind-borne debris and to the wind itself, and faults on those lines are what interrupt supply. The areas named in the forecasts, the Northern and Western Isles, Caithness, Argyll, the north west Highlands and the Moray Firth, are those where restoration can take longest because access is hardest3.
Household energy independence in this context means the ability to keep essential services running when the network is down. That depends on what a home has in place before the wind arrives, and on whether the household is on the Priority Services Register, which determines the level of direct contact and support during an outage1. SSEN's own guidance points to the 105 number and the Power Track map as the two channels for reporting and tracking faults1.
What happens next
SSEN said it would continue to monitor the weather front closely and issue further updates depending on the forecast1. The Met Office Yellow Weather Warning covered Thursday1. No restoration times or confirmed fault numbers were given in the 18 December announcement1.