Power cuts in rural Scotland

[Corporatepreggolady]

Hello! We're staying on the isle of mull and following Storm Amy, had a power cut that lasted three days. It's a cottage with electric heating and boiler so this left us without heat, hot water or any ability to cook as well as the lights being out. I grew up in a house that would have regular power cuts but we had gas heating and hot water, and never went out for this long, so this level of being off grid seems mad to me. It impacted many others locally. Being on an island in poor weather and very far from home, we couldn't simply leave.

It all just got me wondering how usual this is, and whether remote island communities get a fair deal with electricity. If this was say, Cambridge, without power for days, it would be national news. People seem to get on with it here but it is exceptionally difficult to live in a normal way

We had a power cut for two days. I have a gravity fed oil aga so can cook/ heat. Then a woodstove with a back boiler for hot water. I think most rural houses are set up to cope with regular (ish) power cuts. Eat whatever is defrosting. It. does take quite a lot of energy keeping everyone fed /washed/warm/entertained.

It’s madness to have a rural house without a backup plan of a generator/ woodstove etc.

And?
It's a national grid, not a grid with cost benefits for those who live closer.

So all of Scotland being penalised is better?

Quite, which is why those living on the Scottish islands were not charged the real cost of supplying them with electricity.

....and also why those in more built up other parts of the UK are also bow not charged the full price of getting our island generated electricity to them. 😵‍💫

I live rurally.
I have electricity
Combination gas boiler, we're in the last village with piped gas, others have oil
Electric shower
Dual fuel range cooker
Multifuel / woodburner stove
Little Camping gas stove.
2 decent power banks kept fully charged.
We have frequent power cuts, not just after storms; maintenance and wear and tear takes us out often as well on both gas and electricity, gas pipes have been flooded twice in the last year leaving us without for days.
With the combination of the above, we can stay warm, shower, cook,boil water etc if one or both goes out. Insane that electricity is anybodies only option on the islands.

In some modern houses electricity is the only option.

Camping stove? Woodburner? BBQ? Gas heater?

Wood burners are hideous for the environment.
Camping stoves or BBQ not safe indoors.
Not easy to get gas cannisters.

It fascinates me that we are moving much more renewable electricity , partly to combat the effects of climate change which includes more stormy weather … by putting up lots of overhead power cables on high ground to get power to England

surely it's not rocket science that the more people something affects, the more likely it is to be news? Obviously 400,000 people without electricity is more newsworthy than 400 (or whatever the difference is).

In terms of 'a fair deal' infrastructure costs means it's vastly more expensive per person to provide services rurally so if anything people in towns and cities are probably subsidising those who live remotely.

Not in Scotland but in a fairly out of the way part of Northern England and I agree with those who are saying it's an occupational hazard of rural living. The infrastructure is more vulnerable to disruption in bad weather, bad weather is more common, there are less people affected if the power goes out so we are not top priority when there are widespread outages, and the repairs are often technically more difficult so will take longer anyway.
C'est la vie. There are plus points about living rurally and there are downsides. This is one of the downsides.But if you live somewhere where its a relatively common happening you are prepared for it. We have a generator. In fact we have 3. One for when the electricity goes off, a spare in case the generator fails and some of our friends have just moved away and gave us their's as they no longer need it. So we have a spare for the spare now! We also have an open fire, a camping stove, candles etc all ready for use when needed. It's unlikely that a holiday cottage owner would provide all that I suppose so you were probably more inconvenienced than the permanent residents, both because you aren't used to it and because you didn't have the pre prepared kit.

Nobody is subsidising anybody.

The problem is that the Scottish highlands is very challenging geographically, being very mountainous with few good transport links, almost entirely limited to the glens, between the relatively few moderate or large population centers, and away from the primary roads, the road network is sparse, has low capacity and (relatively) is difficult to navigate. If a power line goes down in London, engineers can usually easily drive to the failure point or close to it and repair it. If a power line fails in a remote glen miles from any road, it is going to be harder and take longer to fix, and that is before you consider having to wait for poor weather conditions to abate, or get replacement parts there from who knows where if needed. This is also why delivery charges to the Scottish highlands and islands are more expensive, because of the elevated transport difficulty.

Oh heck, don't start the delivery costs debate! ✌️

It seems in some cases rural residents get far less funding per head of the population according to this report https://www.rsnonline.org.uk/fairer-funding-for-rural-communities.

Social care "Rural residents will also receive 13% less per head in social care support overall."

Housing "Worryingly, excluding London, the average sale price of housing is £112,300 higher in rural areas than it is in urban areas."

Transport "Budgeted spend on public transport per head (excluding concessionary fares) for 2022/23 in urban areas was five times that of rural councils."

Taxes aren't set lower for those in rural areas. Council tax is based on value of the property (see above for housing costs to get an idea). And rural areas get less services.

Not sure your claim of rural areas are more likely to subsidised is quite correct.

Scottish island here. We had the power off for 16 hours, then water off for another day. Friends down the road were without electricity for 3 days. That was the second time in a many months, and no doubt we’ll get more cuts during the winter. Have ordered myself a storm kettle so I have an easy way of heating water for drinks and pasta, noodles etc without having to rely on having some gas in stock.

Why isn’t a camping stove safe indoors? It is no different to a gas cooker.

We cook predominantly on lpg. The CO alarm display has never moved from zero.

Gas bottles are used in pairs. When one runs out, you switch to the other and order a replacement. They last nearly a year.

Let’s 😉 I have friends on the Arran. Tesco delivers but charges £10 per crate, joys of island living!

What would you suggest for people who have an annual power cut sometimes 3 or 4. Posdibly combined with subzero temperatures, old buildings that don’t retain heat. Roads blocked with snow. If you didn’t have a wood stove I think you’d be in danger of developing hypothermia.

Years ago I worked on a farm in Frome for a couple of weeks (not farm related work). They had a solid fuel Rayburn cooker that could heat the radiators and provide a modest amount of hot water for a bath, in addition to a gas cooker that they ran off those large standing gas bottles (no mains gas, obviously). There was an oil tanker in the garden near the farmhouse. They also had oil lamps for use in the event of a power cut. All things you'd need if the power was down.

I live in zone 3 London and my street has had power cuts on and off for 6 months-not made the news yet…. We had a generator at the bottom of the road 4 years ago for a month. I agree with previous poster that they don’t get a bad deal, if they were that bothered they would source alternatives to the grid.

Sounds (frustratingly) normal to me. I live in rural Northumberland and regular multi-day power cuts are a fact of life.

There have been massive cuts in money spent on system maintenance over the last decade, which has unsurprisingly resulted in an increase in cuts.

I think it's surprising you haven't been left alternative means for cooking, lighting and heating - I would expect most properties with regular cuts to have these.

We are in the rural SE, but in a village which is particularly prone to power cuts. We always 100% know that if towns are off too we'll be waiting longer, whereas if it's just us or us and the next village they will get us reconnected sooner. Frustrating but makes sense I guess (also they have to pay compensation once it's more than 48 hrs so it's in their interests to get bigger population centres reconnected!).

I think it’s been touted that people who live nearer power generation should get slightly lower bills as impacted by it.

I would say that the community fund set up by local wind farm has been well used by local groups.