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

I was talking specifically about electricity (because thats the topic under discussion) not every other unique and minor variable in someone's life!

Part of everyone's electricity bills goes into developing and maintaining the infrastructure. It is included within the overall costs everyone is charged, whether as part of the standing charge or in the amount the company charges per kW. There isn't an individual electrical infrastructure charge that varies depending on whether you live in a city or rurally.

However providing electricity is far easier and cheaper to provide to 200 people living within 1 street than to 200 people spread out over 100 miles. Surely that's obvious? The amount of cables used, the effort involved in erecting power stations and pylons, the time and distance 1 engineer can cover, etc etc.

Yet these costs are shared equally by everyone. People living rurally don't pay more for having their electricity supplied. Therefore they are subsidised by those for whom electricity is more easily and cheaply supplied.

I don't understand how people are querying what are just objective (and obvious) facts about how the provision of pretty much any services work. It's not like I'm calling anyone greedy electricity scroungers for heavens sake!

I was talking specifically about electricity (because thats the topic under discussion) not every other unique and minor variable in someone's life!

Part of everyone's electricity bills goes into developing and maintaining the infrastructure. It is included within the overall costs everyone is charged, whether as part of the standing charge or in the amount the company charges per kW. There isn't an individual electrical infrastructure charge that varies depending on whether you live in a city or rurally.

However providing electricity is far easier and cheaper to provide to 200 people living within 1 street than to 200 people spread out over 100 miles. Surely that's obvious? The amount of cables used, the effort involved in erecting power stations and pylons, the time and distance 1 engineer can cover, etc etc.

Yet these costs are shared equally by everyone. People living rurally don't pay more for having their electricity supplied. Therefore they are subsidised by those for whom electricity is more easily and cheaplh supplied.

I don't understand how people are querying what are just objective (and obvious) facts about how the provision of pretty much any services work. It's not like I'm calling anyone greedy electricity scroungers for heavens sake!

It’s normal in the Highlands and Islands, so most people know to be prepared for power cuts over winter. It’s just the nature of the beast and the logistics of getting to the affected lines.

SSE do make provision for hot food in communities that are without power - usually providing hot food vans or paying local businesses.

Some communities have generators that can go to those that need if the power is off for days.

https://www.ssen.co.uk/news-views/2025/How-were-supporting-customers-during-storm-Amy/

Sadly nothing on Mull, I wonder how claiming the reimbursement works when you’re staying in an AirBnB 🤔

Said from a city centre somewhere no doubt.

Nope, born and bred in the Highlands, moved back a few years ago.

Storm Arwen had us with no power, heat, landlines or mobile for 7 days. I live a village in NE Scotland with a fragile power system. It was pretty alarming to find that the landlines was also gone so we had no way of getting updates, let alone make emergency contact with anyone. We have no alternate heating as our house has no stove - during arwen the temp inside was 5 degrees. We sat in our cars for hours, letting them idle to heat us up and charge phones etc in case the masts came alive.
Seven days without heat, light, hot water, hot food etc was actually quite traumatic. Whole freezer of food lost, hundreds spent on fuel for cars for heating or driving 30 miles to get a hot meal as they didn't bother to put a food van near us.
Never again - we bought a generator and always have fuel stashed for it.

It’s not uncommon. I wouldn’t go 100% electric for this reason. As a resident we have a butane gas backup and we know who has what in our local area and who is vulnerable. As a visitor it must be tricky.

Gas cannisters are really hard to get hold of where I live, as already stated.

I'm not in Scotland but live on the top of a very bleak moor on the border between N Yorks and Cumbria. We get a fair few power cuts and the weather is often dreadful. We usually don't bother with cooking when the power's out and just eat packet food until it comes back.

Gosh that sounds really hard for 7 days, but what you've described best sums up our experience for 3 too - no signal, warmth, hot water, light, driving 30 miles to nearest food truck.

I suppose my overall impression is that this is massively difficult, and I'm more in awe of these communities than ever in terms of how they prepare for and deal with these situations. I found it really really challenging and to think it could be a yearly or even more frequent occurrence is 🫣

In some modern houses electricity is the only option.

Most people round my way have oil boilers or gas deliveries. Everyone has a wood burner or multifuel stove - you'd freeze to death in a power cut otherwise, no boilers will run without electricity.

Little gas canisters or big refillable bottles?

Where do you live?

I live in a new house in rural England. We have a solid fuel Rayburn that will run the hot water without electricity. A log burner and with practice you can cook a roast dinner on the top of log burner. A very small 900w genny. It’s enough to power the central heating pump so we can fire the Rayburn up enough to cook on it and to keep the WiFi on otherwise we have no phones. We’re on beamed broadband and the nearest base station has 3 days worth of batteries.
It’s all about planning unfortunately

Unfortunately, power cuts due to storms are common, and in far too many places, even a storm isn't necessary to cause outages. These issues are widespread wherever the infrastructure is poor.

@Icannotthinkofagoodusernamerightnow
Claiming that "wood burners are hideous for the environment" shows a lot of privilege. Many people depend on wood burners for survival, and it feels out of touch to criticize them for environmental harm while privileged individuals contribute to environmental damage through things like using the internet.

one of my friends now have their own generator because of power cuts! It’s not much fun being in the Scottish highlands without hot water and lighting in winter! And it’s things like WiFi and phone signal too, they’re reliant on the WiFi for mobile use as there’s no signal. During the big storm (Arwen?) they had no power for days and the power company was telling people to order takeaways and they could claim to be reimbursed but they had no means of ordering one other than to drive to the nearest town with power!

Either.

Privilege? Nope. They just stinkt and affect my airways every winter, never mind the pollution.

We often lose power but our gas is still connected to an electricity run boiler so when the electricity is out, we have to rely on oil and wood.

@ThisTicklishFatball absolutely.

The other thing is that they're not that bad at all in rural areas. My air is so clean I have lichen growing on the rocks in the garden, and me and all my neighbours burn wood and multifuel stoves in winter. We're pretty spread out.

There was stuff available on Mull, not the food trucks but sse also work with local businesses. Thankfully most of Mull is reconnected now.

Not just the islands, vast areas of Argyll and the Highlands are off the gas grid too.

"The big recent change that is of huge concern for us is the decommissioning of landlines to fibre. Our mobile phone signal often is affected - and so in the case of this recent power cut (for more than 24 hours, with mobile masts being down, and internet not working because of no electricity) in case of an emergency you would have had to drive over 30 minutes to even be able to phone for help."

Completely agree. This time last year I had no electricity, no landline and no mobile for 3 days. And for some of that time I couldn't drive to find reception because of trees down. It was quite sobering to realise you couldn't get help if needed. It also meant you couldn't find out when your power might come back on or where the hot food trucks were.

@Corporatepreggolady you had a just problem more than an electric company problem.

For millennia humans have burnt wood to keep warm and a wood stove is a fairly advanced thing in comparison to the open fires of old. I can appreciate they are problematic in built up areas but I have one neighbour 200m away and the next is two miles down the road. Our smoke has zero / neglible effect on others but stoves can be literally lifesavers in a power cut.