SSE Energy Open Meeting

report by Sally Campbell

Last Wednesday, 29th May, representatives of SSE met with Arran people in the Auchrannie, and gave the facts about what they had coped with during the power failure in March. The statistics are staggering, as the following list shows.

Across whole SSE area:

20,000 customers off
Ice-loading at Machrie  was 14 inches across. Sheer weight damaged or snapped poles and cables
9 pylons damaged on Kintyre
180 damaged poles
6 helicopters used once weather improved (from Sunday)
450 field staff from as far afield as Shetland and Cornwall
100 office staff in Perth
200 customer service staff
30 MW(megawatts) of mobile generation on Arran, Kintyre and Islay
Required 40,000 litres of fuel per day
Generation: this was one of the biggest power emergencies in the UK ever. Last major one was the hurricane in the south of England in 1987
A temporary single circuit of 132kV was initially set up, whilst pylons etc repaired

On Arran:

1 helicopter “spotter’ looking for damaged poles etc. First up on the Sunday
50 broken poles above Machrie, which carried main feed to the island
Storm Centre established at Auchrannie
Field staff worked 120 hours per person in that week
Replaced 25km conductor cable, this is 15 miles of wire!
Replaced, repaired 50 transformers
7 catering trucks on Arran
Cost to SSE so far is £10M

Strategic work for the future:

Building a robust system
Building a permanent back-up site for emergency power generation on Arran
Village communities and island systems develop a plan for a similar emergency
A communication plan to keep people informed as much as possible in a changing situation
Proposed subsea link between Crossaig and Carradale to reinforce transmission network on Kintyre