Power cut affects thousands of customers across the isles

Thousands of Shetland homes were left in darkness yesterday after a major power cut affected vast areas of the isles.

Scottish and Southern Electricity have apologised after the  main power line, which runs between Sullom Voe and Gremista in Lerwick, encountered problems at around 7pm.

The fault resulted in electricity supply being “automatically interrupted”, although supply restoration began immediately and the last of the homes had power again within half an hour.

SSE stated that:

• Just over 4,000 customers in the North Mainland and the North Isles were restored within seconds;

• A further 1,000 customers in the West Mainland were reconnected after around two minutes;

• Just under 3,500 customers south of Lerwick were restored a short time before 7.15pm;

• Around 4,300 customers in Lerwick and surrounding areas were restored in stages from 7.15pm, with the final customers restored before 7.30pm.

SSE stated: “We would like to thank our customers for their patience and apologise for the inconvenience caused while our team completed supply restoration. We are carrying out an investigation into the cause of this fault.”