Yesterday morning the United Kingdom’s Met Office issued a press release about the impending arrival of a disruptive weather system:

A low-pressure system which will bring high winds and rain to parts of the UK has been named Storm Otto by the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI).

Storm Otto will move east across the far north of the UK from the early hours of Friday morning, likely bringing gusts in excess of 75mph to some northern areas.

Met Office Chief Meteorologist Andy Page said: “Storm Otto will bring high winds and rain to the UK, with some northern parts of Scotland and the northeast of England likely to get the strongest gusts of wind, possibly in excess of 75mph. Warnings have been issued and could be updated as Storm Otto develops.

“There’s a chance of travel disruption and high-sided vehicles could be particularly prone to disrupted plans in this set-up. There’s associated rain with Storm Otto, with 40-50 mm of rain likely to fall over parts of western Scotland.”

Potential impacts highlighted in the warning also the likelihood of large waves, especially in North Sea coasts, as well as a chance of some damage to buildings and infrastructure.

This was accompanied by a weather warning for high winds from Storm Otto:

Scottish and Southern Electricity then issued a press release stating that:

Based on current forecasts, a rapid, deep-forming low-pressure system will move in from the west of Scotland late on Thursday evening, with gusts of up to 80mph expected to hit the Western Isles from around 5 am on Friday. As the low pressure moves eastward on Friday morning, gusts of up to 65mph are forecast across most of mainland Scotland, with 80mph gales expected in Orkney and Caithness as the low pressure moves into the North Sea.

In preparation for this unsettled weather, we have enacted our well-established resilience plans and are increasing and moving additional standby resources to key locations in anticipation of any potential damage.

Our dedicated customer service teams have proactively contacted over 130,000 customers on our Priority Services Register to offer additional advice and support and are calling those in high categories of vulnerability. We continue to coordinate with local resilience partners to aid preparations and support any planning for welfare requirements.

Advice for customers
We are urging people not to approach any damaged equipment and instead, to report it by calling 105 or via our Power Track App 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 use if your power goes off, or if you see any damage to the electricity network
• Downloading SSEN’s Power Track app to give you details of power cuts and restoration times. You can also report power cuts and network damage through the Power Track app
• Going to SSEN’s website where there is a wealth of advice and information on how to prepare for a possible loss of power
• Following SSEN on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates

The Met Office didn’t explicitly mention damage to electricity distribution infrastructure,
but here is their forecast from midnight last night for the maximum wind gust speed across the UK this morning:

The power cut map for the north of Scotland from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks at 9:45 is showing a total of 103 “unplanned outages”:

Here’s a closer look at the worst affected area:

Further south, here is this morning’s power cut map from Scottish Power:

Further south still, here is Northern Powergrid’s power cut map for North-East England:

Once again thousands of homes and businesses are now without a supply of electricity. What should be done about this apparently endlessly recurring sequence of disasters?

Could distributed energy storage help? Whether of the “static” variety or “mobile” through the use of vehicle-to-home technology!

[Edit – February 17th 14:00]

At 14:00 GMT the SSEN power cut map now reports “143 unplanned outages”:

It seems as though Storm Otto has also blacked out north-east England, since the Northern Powergrid power cuts map currently looks like this:

[Edit – February 17th 17:00]

In its 4:30 PM update SSEN provides information on its deployment of mobile food vans:

As of 4.30pm this afternoon, electricity supplies have been successfully restored to over 27,000 properties, with around 16,000 properties currently off supply. 

The areas that continue to be impacted are mainly concentrated in Aberdeenshire, including parts of Hatton, Huntly, Insch, Maud, Mintlaw, Banchory and surrounding areas, rural Moray and pockets of customers across the Highlands.

In preparation for Storm Otto, SSEN enacted its well-established resilience plans, mobilising additional teams and equipment to the main areas forecast to be impacted.  Mobile generation will be utilised to support with restoration efforts.

Additional resources have been deployed to the main areas still affected, with around 600 field and support staff doing all they can to restore power to those who remain off supply and ensure customers are supported. 

SSEN expects its teams to continue to make significant progress in restoring power to customers throughout the course of today and into this evening.  However, due to the widespread extent of the damage and ongoing challenges accessing faults due to fallen trees and road closures, full restoration of customers will extend into the weekend, with some customers in rural areas to be off supply for more than 48 hours.

SSEN recognises the impact this may have on customers and continues to provide proactive updates, working closely with local resilience partners to coordinate welfare arrangements and identify customers who may need additional support.  SSEN has proactively contacted over 130,000 customers on its Priority Services Register and is calling those in the highest categories of vulnerability to check on their welfare and provide additional support. 

Mobile food vans are being deployed to the main areas still off supply, with locations coordinated with local resilience partners.  Locations and timings will be updated on SSEN’s website and social media channels, with provisions currently being established in the following locations and expected to be serving food from around 5pm:

Cruden Bay (Main Street Bay)
Huntly (Car Park at Market Muir)
Aberchirder (Car Park at the Square)
Hatton (Car Park beside the Village Hall)
Daviot Village (Outside the Village Hall)
Craigievar School (Car Park in the School)
Insch (Outside the Church)
Mintlaw (Macbi Community Hub Car Park)
Maud (Market Street outside the Social Club)

In line with SSEN’s established welfare policy, any customer who has been off supply for longer than 12 hours is also entitled to claim up to £30 for food, per day.  Customers are asked to keep copies of receipts for any claims.

[Edit – February 17th 20:30]

At 8:30 PM Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ power cut map still reports 123 unplanned outages:

Scottish Power don’t reveal a headline number of faults, but here’s their current power cut map:

In the north-east of England Northern Powergrid do seem to be making good progress in repairing the remaining power cuts in their region:

[Edit – February 18th 9:00]

On Saturday morning Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ power cut map reports 112 unplanned outages:

Scottish Power Energy Networks still don’t seem to be reporting on the number of their customers affected by Storm Otto, but here’s their current power cut map, which suggests they still have some way to go to fix all the faults:

In its 8:30 AM update Northern Powergrid state that:

There is just one customer from Storm Otto still off supply this morning.

It was a fantastic effort by our teams to restore power to 21,595 customers as a result of the storm, across what was a challenging day. 

The team worked late into the night, restoring supplies to the remaining 91 customers still off supply, however, we couldn’t get a safe position for a generator for the final customer. The repair team are mobilised, we’re taking care of the customer and are hopeful to have their supply restored this morning.

Once again, we apologise for the inconvenience caused for our customers as a result of Storm Otto and we appreciate their patience whilst we’ve been on with repairs throughout the course of Friday, and through the night into Saturday morning.

However their power cut map at 9 AM doesn’t look quite so promising:

[Edit – February 18th 15:30]

On Saturday afternoon SSEN have reduced the number of unplanned outages on their electricity distribution network to 81:

SPEN’s power cut map currently looks like this:

Northern Powergrid state on their web site that “our services are running normally”. If they say so:

[Edit – February 19th 9:30]

Sunday morning’s 9 AM update from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks reports that:

Following further progress last night and early this morning, as of 9am today, electricity supplies have been successfully restored to over 43,000 properties, with less than 100 properties currently off supply. 
These mainly consist of single premises or small clusters of customers in rural locations across Aberdeenshire.

SSEN’s teams will remain in contact with those customers who remain off supply to make them aware of their estimated restoration times, where this is known; and encourage them to take up SSEN’s welfare offering. SSEN remain confident all customers who remain off supply will be reconnected by 6pm this evening at the latest.

SSEN continues to work closely with local resilience partners to coordinate welfare arrangements and identify those customers who may need additional support, with mobile food vans continuing to support customers in the main areas still affected, with the following locations serving food and drinks:

Maud, Market Street outside the social club (from 8am today)
Turriff, location TBC (expected from 11.30am today)

Mark Rough, Operations Director at SSEN Distribution, said:

“After further progress reconnecting customers late last light, our teams have been back out since first light this morning in the final push to repair damage and restore power to those remaining customers who remain off supply.

“We expect to make good progress throughout the course of today and remain confident all customers will be back reconnected by this evening at the latest.

“We continue to work closely with our resilience partners to support our customers as required, particularly those on our Priority Services Register, and would encourage anyone who may need additional support to contact our dedicated teams on the power cut helpline, 105.”

SSEN’s power cut map still reports 18 unplanned outages, but at least one of those is new:

Scottish Power Energy Networks seem to have returned to “normal operations”:

Northern Powergrid’s power cut map currently looks like this:

Watch this space!