Power now restored to all homes in Scotland affected by Storm Gerrit

All homes that lost power as Storm Gerrit lashed Scotland have now been reconnected, bosses at power firm SSEN have confirmed.

The electricity provider said its teams had worked through “particularly challenging conditions” to restore supplies to more than 48,000 homes.

A final push by staff saw the last properties without electricity reconnected by 11pm on Friday, with customers in parts of Aberdeenshire, Perthshire and The Great Glen area in the Highlands all now with power again.

Andy Smith, SSEN distribution’s operations director, said the storm had brought “serious disruption” with gale force winds having reached recorded speeds of 86mph in Inverbervie, Aberdeenshire and 84mph in Lerwick, Shetland.

Mr Smith said: “Storm Gerrit caused serious disruption across the north of Scotland, and I would like to say thank you to our customers for their patience while we worked through some particularly challenging conditions to reconnect them, as quickly and safely as possible.

“I’m very proud of the work undertaken by SSEN’s operational teams, and for being out at all hours and in all weathers to find and fix the faults over the past few days.

“I would also like to extend my gratitude to our contract partners and fellow network operators for how they supported our response.”

SSEN is now encouraging customers who were left without power to apply for compensation, depending on how long they were without electricity for.

Completion of work to restore electricity supplies comes ahead of the latest weather alert, with a yellow warning for rain and snow having been issued for much of Scotland on Saturday.

As a result of that Network Rail Scotland said speed restrictions will be in place on the West Highland Lines from 10am today until 9am on Sunday.