Storm Floris ‘severe’ weather forecast fuelling ‘growing likelihood’ of Highland power cuts, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has warned

Electrical engineers have been placed on yellow alert amid a “growing likelihood” that Storm Floris will spark Highland power cuts.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) took the decision on Saturday to move its engineers up to “yellow alert” level in anticipation that Storm Floris will spark multiple power cuts when it batters the north of Scotland on Monday and into Tuesday.

Winds of up to 85mph are being predicted by the Met Office on hills and exposed stretches of Scotland’s coastlines.

Those sort of wind speeds can cause damage even in winter, but there are fears they could prove potentially even more damaging now due to trees being in full leaf.

Heavy rain is also forecast, bringing with it its own risk of disruption.

SSEN’s move to yellow alert status means it will be bringing in more engineering teams in advance of the storm to help tackle outages as they happen.

Confirming it was raising its preparedness level to yellow alert status, a spokesperson for SSEN said: “The decision to move to this higher-alert level reflects the growing likelihood that Monday’s storm-force winds and heavy rain will affect customers’ power supplies; we’re increasing our level of preparedness as a result.”

They continued: “Storms of this severity at the height of summer are relatively rare. In response to this severe forecast, we’ve already activated our well-rehearsed contingency plans. This means we’re bringing in additional teams to deal safely and quickly with any damage to the network and subsequent faults, which may interrupt customers’ power supplies.

“We’re also postponing planned network maintenance to free up further resources.

“We’re increasing the number of people we’ll have working in our customer contact centres; they’ll be ready to answer your calls and respond to queries on social media.

“Before the severe weather arrives, we’ll be getting in touch with tens of thousands of our more vulnerable customers to provide them with guidance on what preparations to make, along with help and advice on what they can do if the power goes off.

“We’ll continue to monitor this period of severe weather closely and will issue further updates depending on the forecast. “

If you see any damage to SSEN’s equipment, stay back, don’t touch it and instead report it to SSEN directly by calling 105, or via its Power Track website, and engineers will investigate as soon as possible.

Customers are also being encouraged to be prepared for the possibility of disruption to supplies by:

• Saving the emergency power cut number - '105' - to your phone to report any loss of supply or damage to the electricity network

• Visiting SSEN’s Power Track website to give you details of power cuts and restoration times. You can also report power cuts and network damage through Power Track.

• Visiting the "Preparing for a power cut" section on SSEN’s website, where there is a wealth of advice and information, or to chat live to one of SSEN’s advisors via the Webchat service.

Customers are also eligible for SSEN’s Priority Services Register (PSR) 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/aids reliant on electricity

• Are over 60.

To find out more about the PSR, click here or call 0800 294 3259.

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.