Outage warnings in the Highlands after Storm Otto
Parts of western Badenoch remain without power after last night's savage gusts of Storm Otto.
Latest word from SSEN was that the area west of Laggan, around the head of Loch Laggan, would remain without power until midnight.
The region lost its source as early as three o'clock this morning.
"We're very sorry for the power cut affecting the area," a spokesperson said.
"Storm Otto has damaged our network and this has resulted in several power cuts across Scotland.
"Our teams are working hard to get the power restored. We know this is a long time and if we can restore power sooner, we will."
The rest of the strath was managing this afternoon to avoid the outages, both unplanned and planned.
From around three this morning, sustained storm-force winds moved across the north of Scotland, tracking further south than was forecast. The main areas impacted are Aberdeenshire, Moray and Inverness-shire with higher than predicted wind gusts of 85mph in some inland areas.
SSEN has experienced a significant number of faults on its high voltage network as a result of fallen trees, branches and windblown debris.
But as of 11am this morning, electricity supplies had been successfully restored to over 10,000 properties, with 30,000 properties currently off supply.
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 deployed to support with restoration efforts and helicopters are on standby to help assess the extent of damage as soon as it is safe to fly.
"As Storm Otto continues to track across the north of Scotland, further disruption is possible throughout the course of the morning as the storm moves out into the North Sea, with wind speeds forecast to subside from around midday."
SSEN expects its teams to make significant progress in restoring power to customers today but due to the widespread extent of the damage, continued adverse weather conditions and 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.
As teams of engineers continue to assess the full extent of the damage, updated times of restoration will be provided to all customers off supply from early afternoon today. This will allow those who are likely to remain off supply for a prolonged period to consider making alternative arrangements.
Based on current forecasts, a rapid, deep-forming low-pressure system will hit the Western Isles from around 5 am tomorrow. As the low pressure moves eastward, gusts of up to 65mph are forecast across most of mainland Scotland, with 80mph gales expected in some northern areas.
"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.
"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."
